A shredding of credibility

Peg Putt

“The Premier and Deputy Premier have attempted to give an account of events that left out the fact that a document to progress to Cabinet the intended appointment of Simon Cooper as a Magistrate was signed but later destroyed by the Deputy Premier when he was Attorney General, and they have been caught out because that very document had been later retrieved from garbage and has been laboriously put back together,” Ms Putt said.
Peg Putt MP
Greens Opposition Leader
Tuesday, 8 April 2008

www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today believe that the Premier and the Deputy Premier have misled Parliament over the existence of a document signed by the Deputy Premier when he was Attorney General, the approval of which document was part of the process to progress the appointment of Simon Cooper as a Magistrate by then sending documents to Cabinet.

Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MP said that Mr Lennon and Mr Kons were given numerous opportunities during an extensive grilling in Question Time in Parliament to admit to the existence of the document and its later shredding in Mr Kons’ office but had failed to do so, the Deputy Premier going so far as to rule out point blank that the document ever existed and was destroyed, whilst the Premier had repeatedly evaded answering that specific allegation and had embarked on a strategy of deflection.

Greens Member for Bass, Kim Booth MP, produced a copy of the document reconstructed from shreddings, containing Mr Kons’ signed approval and handwritten note which the Greens believe to be the genuine article. The document had apparently been retrieved from garbage put out for disposal and was given to Mr Booth over the weekend.

Mr Booth tabled a copy of the document at the end of Question Time after having given the government ample opportunity to admit that it had existed and to explain the train of events that led to its shredding.

The Greens stressed that in addition to having been exposed as misleading Parliament over the existence and shredding of the document, the government now faces pressure over why and how the document titled ‘Cabinet Noting of Magistrate Appointment’ was destroyed – and their orchestrated tactics of evasion indicate a sensitivity about those events.

Ms Putt reminded that the accusation made in the Mercury newspaper was that an intervention was made by the former Secretary of the Premier’s Department to have the intended appointment scuttled as political payback for Mr Cooper’s role in outlining the true circumstances in which Gunns withdrew their pulp mill from the RPDC, and the was document destroyed apparently to cover the tracks.

“The Premier and Deputy Premier have attempted to give an account of events that left out the fact that a document to progress to Cabinet the intended appointment of Simon Cooper as a Magistrate was signed but later destroyed by the Deputy Premier when he was Attorney General, and they have been caught out because that very document had been later retrieved from garbage and has been laboriously put back together,” Ms Putt said.

“The whole truth was not told to Parliament despite many careful questions that gave every opportunity for all the facts to be told, and the result is that Parliament has been misled and the reasons for doing so become of key importance.”

“Misleading Parliament is an extremely serious offence, and the government will be in disarray as they attempt to excuse the inexcusable.”

“It looks as though the claim that the intended appointment did not go forward because of intervention from the Premier’s Department may be correct, and so too that the reason for the intervention was that Mr Cooper had unwittingly played a role in the circumstances of Gunns’ withdrawal from the RPDC becoming public.”

“We are yet to learn how much of this the Premier knew at the time, and how much he was aware of when he walked into Question Time in Parliament, but there is no doubt that his Deputy knew what had occurred.”

“Obviously he would not have shredded the document if he had not thought that the fact that it ever existed needed to be erased, and that comes back to the political nature of the intervention into his intended appointment,” Ms Putt said.

“I have spent hours reassembling the document from shreddings given to me over the weekend, and I am horrified that the Deputy Premier would attempt to cover up this extremely serious matter,” Mr Booth said.

“Both the Premier, by omission and prevarication, and the Deputy Premier by direct denial have now misled Parliament.”

“The Greens believe that this document is genuine and the original, but it is up to the government to investigate which will prove and revolve this thing once and for all.”

What the Libs reckon:

Will Hodgman MP
Leader of the State Opposition
Tuesday April 8, 2008

A new crisis for Lennon Labor

A new week and a new crisis has engulfed the Lennon Labor Government, with Deputy Premier, Steve Kons, appearing to have misled the Parliament during Question Time.

At issue is the allegation that a document signed by Mr Kons, intended for Cabinet to progress the appointment of Mr Simon Cooper as a Magistrate, was destroyed on the instruction of the Premier’s department.

Premier Lennon refused three times to rule out the very simple question of whether his department ordered the destruction of the document for Cabinet that proposed Mr Cooper’s appointment as a Magistrate.

“Mr Lennon’s evasion, bluff and bluster does not wash, because if he could rule out that this document was destroyed on his department’s instruction, then why didn’t he?” Mr Hodgman said.

Meanwhile, Mr Kons’ story changed as Question Time progressed and he began to qualify his earlier categorical statements denying the existence of the document and its alleged destruction.

The State Opposition understands that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is aware of the allegations. What is claimed to be a copy or reconstruction of the document in question was tabled in Parliament.

“To have the Premier giving every impression he is covering this matter up, and the Deputy Premier appearing to mislead Parliament over the same matter, is a disgraceful state of affairs,” Mr Hodgman said.

“It is about time Tasmanians got some truthful answers to questions that go right to the core of this government and the way it operates.

“And it is about time that someone in the Labor Party stood up for accountability and integrity and sent the clear message that the leadership that is being provided by Mr Lennon and Mr Kons is totally unacceptable.”

The State Opposition will be pursuing this matter in Parliament.