Media release – Jeremy Rockliff, Premier, 28 February 2025
Proposed independent review of the Integrity Commission
The Government has been developing the Terms of Reference and exploring options to appoint a reviewer to undertake the proposed independent review of the Integrity Commission agreed to as part of the ‘Confidence and Stability Agreement’ with the then members of the Jacquie Lambie Network on 10 April 2024.
As part of this process, the Government sought and has received advice regarding the proposed review.
The Integrity Commission Act 2009 provides that it is the function of the Joint Standing Committee on Integrity, to monitor and review the performance and functions of an integrity entity (including the Integrity Commission).
It is a further function of the Committee to report to both Houses of Parliament on matters relevant to the performance of an integrity entity’s functions or the exercise of their powers as the Joint Committee considers appropriate.
It is the Government’s view that the appointment of an independent reviewer to conduct a review of the Integrity Commission may be in conflict with that function.
Furthermore, should an independent reviewer be appointed, there are issues with furnishing any reviewer with access to information for the purposes of undertaking a review.
The Government has written to the Joint Standing Committee on Integrity, JLN member for Lyons, the independent member for Bass, and independent member for Braddon to advise that the proposed independent review of the Integrity Commission is unable to proceed.
Media release – independent MHAs Miriam Beswick and Rebekah Pentland, 28 February 2025
INTEGRITY COMMISSION REVIEW
Northern independents Miriam Beswick and Rebekah Pentland are disappointed the independent review of Tasmania’s Integrity Commission won’t proceed but accept the Government’s legal explanation.
“We accept the advice and understand the State Government’s decision,” Mrs Beswick said.
“Strengthening Tasmania’s Integrity Commission remains a key objective, and I hope the Joint Standing Committee on Integrity continues to pursue reform.
“Our state needs a robust integrity watchdog that the public can have confidence in.
“While I have the utmost respect for the Integrity Commission’s leadership and staff, I believe it can be improved.
Bass independent Rebekah Pentland said while it’s disappointing the review won’t proceed as planned, the agreement between the Premier and members of the crossbench continues to produce meaningful outcomes.
“We’ve had two critical reports delivered already and a review of the state’s Right To Information system is underway.
“The Eslake budget report and the Gruen stadium report have helped shape public debate and will both be important for a long time to come.
“I would again urge the State Government to take their findings seriously and use them as the foundation for improved decision-making.”
Media release – Cassy O’Connor MLC, Greens Democracy and Integrity Spokesperson, 28 February 2025
Rockliff Liberals happy to keep the Integrity Commission hobbled
Almost a year after the Rockliff Liberals committed to an independent review of the Integrity Commission in order to secure government with JLN, they’ve walked away from their promise.
Today, the Premier made the astonishing claim that the review is unable to proceed. What a load of crock. What Jeremy Rockliff is really saying is that his government doesn’t want the Commission to have the powers or the resources to do its job effectively.
For the past year, every time the Integrity Commission, the Greens and independents have raised the need for adequate resourcing and changes to the Integrity Commission Act, we’ve been told there’s a review coming to deal with these matters.
The Liberals know Tasmania’s Integrity Commission is the lowest funded integrity body in the country.
They know the Commission now has extra responsibilities and workload as a result of the Commission of Inquiry and the Weiss Review.
They know the legislation underpinning the Commission needs fixing, and yet they continue to fail to act.
A comprehensive review of the Integrity Commission and its establishing Act was undertaken by the Honourable William Cox nine years ago. Only six of the 55 recommendations of this review were ever implemented.
The inaction is clearly deliberate on the part of government.
Again and again they’ve denied or delayed on any reforms recommended to ensure that politicians and other public officers can be held accountable.
Captured as they are by pokies barons, big salmon, developers and other vested interests, this Liberal government is dodgy, and it suits it to hobble the vital work of the Integrity Commission.
If he wants Tasmanians to believe his government backs in the Integrity Commission and its important work, Jeremy Rockliff needs to make sure there’s extra funding in the budget and a plan to implement the recommendations of the Cox Review, Commission of Inquiry and Weiss Review as they relate to the Integrity Commission.
We trust current and former JLN members who made this agreement with the Premier will hold him accountable, and ensure he maintains his commitment to an effective anti-corruption and ethics watchdog.
Media release – Jacqui Lambie Network MP for Lyons, Andrew Jenner, 28 February 2025
Integrity Commission report
The Premier’s announcement that he has reneged on the undertaking to establish an independent review of the integrity commission confirms that neither he, nor his government, can be trusted.
I entered into a post-election agreement with the Premier in good faith, but it is now clear that it was not worth the paper it was written on.
Today’s announcement follows the flat rejection of the findings of the Eslake and Gruen reports and no real response on the extra funding for the RTI process.
It is clear that, had I entered into a new confidence and supply agreement, it would have been wholly one sided.
The Integrity Commission is crucial to the maintenance of rigorous standards of accountability in public administration in Tasmania.
The secrecy and slow pace of dealing with serious allegations indicates there is an urgent need for review and reform.
The reasons given by the government for not undertaking an independent review don’t stack up.
The bigger question is, what is he and his government trying to hide?
Garry Stannus
March 1, 2025 at 22:07
Tasmania : A State of Denial
Background:
‘Legal issue’ stops independent review into Tasmania’s Integrity Commission
[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-28/tas-government-drops-review-into-integrity-commission/104995216]
Those two independents, to use pub-test language, are “not worth a pinch of shit”. Lambie miscued when she included them in her so-called Jacqui Lambie Network. I heard them on the telly last night where one was trying to blithely write it off as ‘no big deal’. One of their names was Pentland, I think.
Blame? You betcha! I blame those voters who voted for the JLN. These network thingies are a bunch of crock, in my opinion. Lambie herself got in first through the Clive Palmer Party, so now I ask you: Who in their right mind would vote for anyone connected with Clive Palmer? Back in the day that multi-millionaire didn’t have enough money to keep his workers on. They got the sack ‘cos he was broke – and they got zilch.
I see Lambie makes a big song and dance about this and that, and I’ll give her credit for supporting the family of Eden Westbrook. You can give her a big tick against her name for that one. But what else? Yes, she’s strong against the proposed MacPoint Stadium, and so is the majority of grown-ups in this state.
Saul Eslake identified the ruinous financial situation Tasmania is in, what with its unfunded liabilities and all. That Eslake Report was suggested by the JLN … and the Libs (don’t forget we live in a Lib-Lab state) commissioned him to write it – and guess what! It found that we couldn’t afford that stupid footy stadium. And now guess what! They rejected it – they rejected Eslake’s report!
To use ‘Lambie Language’, we should be telling the Libs and the AFL to get stuffed! Just don’t forget that Labor also supports the MacPoint proposal!
So, back to the chase .. the Libs, on the initiative of the JLN, commissioned their own report on the footy stadium – and when it found that the stadium proposal was bonkers it rejected the report and critised its author, Dr Nicholas Gruen. Yep, a case of ‘shoot the messenger’ – in spades. You’d be starting to think that the Liberal government is in a state of denial, wouldn’t you? That’s it, surely: our State of Denial.
Look at the Tasmanian government’s denial around those truck-after-truck loads of dead fish-farmed salmon and their rotting corpses, and fat tissue and oily excreta hitting Tassie’s southern beaches! And Labor doesn’t know which way to jump!
Now about that Gondwana-Land survivor, the Maugean Skate: Albanese promises to change the environmental law if re-elected so that he won’t have to have his Minister do what she’s supposed to do – which is to protect this amazing creature. Dean Winter (that new State Labor kid on the block) tells workers that Labor can make the skate survive while keeping fish-farming in Macquarie Harbour! I kid you not!
Conclusions:
So the Lib-Labs want us to have:
* MacPoint 2.0 (a revised artist’s impression of Macquarie Point Stadium) and
* MacHarbour 2.0 (a revised ‘peaceful coexistence’ plan for Macquarie Harbour fish farming.)
They both have a plan – namely how to send the state broke by financial mismanagement – and how to send the Maugean skate into extinction.
Lib-Labs? Not on your life!