JOHN HAWKINS … and What the Libs want to know
Scott Gadd has now reappeared on the radar with this decision by the Bartlett Government to pay him over $850,000 through a possibly illegal contract.
I suggest that Gadd knew when he signed that he had no Department (through) his knowledge of the inner workings of his Department.
This payment when combined with my evidence placed in camera before the Ethics Commission should be the trigger for a Royal Commission into the subject of Gadd/Lennon/ Bartlett and the exemption of Forestry from all Heritage Legislation. Gadd is also responsible for the total denial of all Landscape Legislation, which is unique to this State, a decision that only benefits the Forestry Industry of Tasmania.
Earlier:
Scott Gadd, Forestry and Heritage Landscape
Re-sign one day, axed the next
Will Hodgman MP
Leader of the Opposition
Friday 22 May, 2009
Bartlett’s shady deal slowly emerging
· David Bartlett has admitted prior discussions took place about axing Environment, Parks, Heritage and Arts Department
· He still went ahead re-appointing Scott Gadd
· He needs to explain exactly what occurred, and when
David Bartlett needs to come clean on the Scott Gadd scandal.
He must explain why he was proceeding with the process to re-appoint Mr Gadd as a Departmental Secretary on the one hand, while at the very same time plotting the abolition of his Department.
The Premier told Parliament yesterday that “on 11 May, as you are now all aware, a final Cabinet decision was made” to abolish the Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts.
The key word in this is “final”.
Clearly Ministers and senior bureaucrats had been discussing the abolition of DEPHA in the days or weeks leading up to the 11 May Cabinet meeting.
This is vitally important, because Scott Gadd, on the Premier’s own admission, did not sign the instrument accepting a new three-year contract until Thursday 7 May.
That is four days before Cabinet met to abolish DEPHA.
The Premier told Parliament he had a “legal and moral obligation” to re-appoint Scott Gadd.
And then he admitted he had only “a rudimentary understanding” of contract law and that he had not sought the Solicitor-General’s advice on the Government’s options.
He makes it up as he goes along. Tasmanians are getting used to David Bartlett doing that, but in this case it is the taxpayer who will be slugged in the neck.
Questions the Premier has refused to answer:
When did he and any of his Ministerial colleagues first consider abolishing DEPHA?
Why couldn’t the offer to Scott Gadd be withdrawn before Mr Gadd had accepted it?
Why did the Government wait until after Mr Gadd’s new contract had started to announce the axing of the Department?
W: www.willhodgman.com.au
