Dr WOODRUFF question to PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF
If you do not examine serious allegations of child sex abuse failings against people of power and let them slide into the bin, what standard does that set for senior agency heads now? Your response to my previous question was confounding. Either, the commission of inquiry's extensive list of past secretary, Michael Pervan's failures to address unlawful practices and allegations of child sex abuse has not been the subject of an investigation at all by your Government or you were misinformed in your answer previously. Which is true?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank Dr Woodruff for her question. Everyone who is a perpetrator of sexual abuse on children will be held accountable.
Dr Woodruff - It is also people who did not act.
Mr SPEAKER - Order.
Mr ROCKLIFF - I acknowledge that. Mr Pervan is no longer employed within the State Service.
Dr Woodruff - What did you do? What did you do when you knew of this well before he left?
Mr ROCKLIFF - Mr Pervan is no longer employed in the State Service. There are existing processes in place for behaviour that may have been considered to be a potential breach of the State Service Code of Conduct. The commission of inquiry has made recommendations for improvement in relation to these processes. I repeat that today.
As I say again, we accepted all the findings of the report and we will move to implement these findings, as well as all 191 recommendations. The findings and individual circumstances relating to State Service employees identified in the report will be considered and each agency will work through the appropriate processes whereby any behaviour deemed to be inappropriate will be assessed for a potential breach of the State Service Code of Conduct.
Dr Woodruff - So you let him go without any investigation; he just went sideways with no investigation?
Mr SPEAKER - Order, order.
Mr ROCKLIFF - Investigations into potential code of conduct breaches have already commenced in some cases. I take responsibility for the commission of inquiry report, its findings, the recommendations - the light that they shone on past failures -
Dr Woodruff - They have shone it. This is what victims/survivors want to know.
Mr SPEAKER - Order, order. Leader of the Greens, order.
Mr ROCKLIFF - Exactly. Now we are working on a course over a six-year time frame as a guide by the commission of inquiry - short-, medium-, and longer-term recommendations for implementation - and we will get the job done. We have already started. We have 30 actions that we outlined in May last year, of which we have already implemented 15 actions.
We will do all we can to ensure that people are held accountable. It is our responsibility as a government -
Dr Woodruff - Why did you not investigate these allegations?
Mr ROCKLIFF - It is our responsibility as a government and it is the responsibility -
Dr Woodruff - It does not end.
Mr SPEAKER - Order, order.
Mr ROCKLIFF - It is my responsibility to ensure that the commission of inquiry's findings and recommendations are acknowledged and implemented. That is my job from this day forward and we have already commenced.
here should be a dividend return to the Tasmanian community for increasing value and returns for these publicly owned Tasmanian assets. This is not just about support for the cost of living but it does deliver on the financial advantage in Tasmania's public ownership of renewable energy generation assets, which is shared with the Tasmanian community. Just like a dividend received as a shareholder in a listed company, Tasmanians will be able to share in the returns of their Hydro.
As you alluded to, under the proposed framework, where Hydro's profits are over $100 million in any financial year, half of the dividend to Government payable on the excess profit over that threshold will be paid to households as a Renewable Energy Dividend while the other half will go to essential services. No Renewable Energy Dividend would be paid in any year Hydro profit was less than $100 million. When Hydro returns dividends in December every year, Tasmanians could receive a discount on their energy bill in the first half of each calendar year when the threshold is exceeded.
As I am sure you aware, Mr Tucker, Hydro currently returns 70 to 90 per cent of its profits to the state government, which are then used in the ordinary operations of the government, including on essential services such as health and education. For this reason, we will strike a balance between the dividends retained by the Government for funding services and repaying debt, and returning some of that money directly to Tasmanian households.
There are many areas I can provide examples of how our Government has reached in and supported Tasmanians during the challenging times of increased energy prices. Thankfully, Tasmania has not seen the increases we have seen in other states of Australia. Notwithstanding that, we know that any increase over the course of the last two years has been difficult in many circumstances for Tasmanians, but we are here to support vulnerable Tasmanians with our $45 million investment matching the $45 million contribution from the federal government, as well as the Winter Bill Buster payment which we invested in and ensured we provided some cost-of-living relief, particularly for vulnerable Tasmanians, last year.
