Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader
Mining Minister, Adam Brooks, has no choice but to resign after three times misleading the Estimates Committee over continuing connections to the company he established, Maintenance Systems Solutions Pty Ltd.
Both the Premier and Mr Brooks have been at pains this week to reassure Tasmanians that Mr Brooks has resigned all directorships of MSS Pty Ltd and that there are no conflicts of interest in relation to his private business interests.
After denying three times that he has an active email account with MSS Pty Ltd, the Minister got into a huddle with his advisers then came back and confirmed to the Committee that he does in fact have an active email account with MSS Pty Ltd.
When a Minister of the Crown knowingly misleads three times in sequence to a Parliamentary Committee, he must resign.
When Mr Bacon was named and ejected from the Committee after telling the truth, I made the decision that the Greens could also not participate in the hearing as we could not be sure the Minister would answer any of our questions truthfully.
This situation has echoes of the Clive Palmer situation, where it became clear through emails that, as a Member of Parliament, he was continuing to act as a shadow director of Queensland Nickel.
All of this could have been avoided if the Premier had either waited until Mr Brooks had fully divested before handing him the mining portfolio or appointed him to another portfolio that wasn't so vulnerable to perceived and actual conflicts of interest.
It was a very sad end to Budget Estimates this evening.