The Premier refused to commit his government to releasing information about how the highly paid Coordinator General spends his time and with whom he meets on the taxpayer’s coin.
When questioned by the Greens in Parliament today, there was nothing the Premier could do to justify this secrecy.
The Coordinator General is a public servant who is paid $446 000 a year to cosy up to business, travel internationally and initiate trade in public assets. The government’s refusal to date to provide detail of his diary under the Right to Information Act 2009, shows complete contempt for transparency.
Mr Perry is a public servant. How he spends his time on the taxpayer’s coin is a matter of public interest.
This is another example of the Liberals’ attachment to secrecy and erosion of the spirit and intent of the Right to Information Act 2009.
In refusing to release this public servant’s diary, the Premier is giving the middle finger to the public’s right to know.
In the latest example of secretive dealings, the Coordinator General will travel to visit Shandong Chambroad petrochemicals in Binzhou, China in the coming weeks. This is the same company behind the divisive Kangaroo Bay development at Bellerive, which, before the Liberals came to government, was public land.
Binzhou is a small oil refinery centre in regional China that has no credible agriculture, tourism or education benefits for the State – despite the Coordinator General and Premier claiming that is the reason for the visit.
This is clearly a taxpayer-funded rescue mission to beg Shandong Chambroad to continue their divisive, secretive development in Kangaroo Bay.
The Office of the Coordinator General is shrouded in secrecy, by design of the Liberals.
The Premier’s refusal to reveal the real intent or cost of this taxpayer funded rescue mission is only further evidence of a contempt for transparency and accountability.
