Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens’ Leader
In the last sitting week of Parliament under the Hodgman Liberals, all the Premier’s chickens are coming home to roost.
After four years of dishonesty and spin, of refusing to accept any responsibility for problems and pointing the finger of blame at others, the Premier still spent all of question time today throwing accusations at the Greens and Labor and being loose with the truth about the circumstances surrounding the resignation of DPaC Secretary, Greg Johannes.
It is now clear that the Premier threw his Secretary under the bus to deflect responsibility for his government’s failure to act on the recommendations of successive Auditors General and the Integrity Commission.
The result is a huge loss to the State Service and demoralized public servants who have endured four years of denigration and attempted politicization at the hands of their Liberal masters.
The litany of failures on transparency and accountability under Will Hodgman’s Premiership pile up as his term comes to an end.
Under his leadership, the Liberals have buried advice about the sale of the Tamar Valley Power Station, still not released disgraced former-Minister Adam Brooks’ email audit, nor the audit of TasTAFE following the Integrity Commission’s investigation, or the Deloitte Report into the senior management of the Tasmanian Health Service, and now the appointment process for a Supreme Court judge is in question.
There are very serious questions about the appointment process for Justice Geason. Our understanding is that selection panel advice was ignored, and the person appointed is known to be a friend of the Premier.
These are questions - not about the person appointed or their capacity to fulfill the role - but about the appointment process itself.
Why was an independent selection panel’s advice ignored, and instead the Premier’s dear friend and best man appointed to the Supreme Court?
The Premier did not deny the selection panel recommended that another applicant be appointed, as the next Justice. He was unable or unwilling to provide an answer about the judicial appointment, instead he tried to shift the blame to the Greens for asking the question.
It won’t wash. The buck stops with Will Hodgman, and it’s time he took some responsibility.