After becoming the first ever Tasmanian Premier to be censured by the Parliament and losing two Ministers, Jeremy Rockliff still won’t learn the lesson that he needs to be honest and open with Tasmanians.
In a performance that mirrored his widely lambasted appearance at Estimates, the Premier stonewalled a range of basic questions from the Caretaker Conventions Committee.
The only thing of substance the Premier was prepared to provide in relation to the Tasracing/TasInsure affair was yet another correction of his past statements. His correction today followed two other corrections he made in the most recent sitting week of Parliament.
The number of times the Premier’s story about this situation has changed is enough to make anyone dizzy. Every time something he or others in the government have been proven wrong, they come back with a new excuse, which is then subsequently proven wrong.
It seems the Premier truly believes the words he used to verbal the Chair “Let’s not get pedantic about words”. But words matter, and it’s time the Premier realised the weight of responsibility he holds to provide accurate statements, in committees and in the House.
Tasmanians expect this of all elected representatives, but especially the Premier.
It seems the government is trying to stop the Tasmanian public from knowing the full facts of this matter. That’s an attitude we’ve seen all too often from the Rockliff Government, and shows despite all the recent problems they’ve faced they still won’t do things differently.
