Ms O’CONNOR (Clark – Leader of the Greens) – That was quite entertaining. I can confidently say, Ms Dow, you got under his skin.
Mr Speaker, there are a couple of matters raised by the Deputy Premier, who is fleeing the Chamber, that I need to address. It was a decision of the former, former, former Education minister, Lin Thorp, to seek to close 20 schools as part of budget savings that we were all required to deliver when we were ministers. Lin Thorp then lost her seat in Rumney and the new Education minister was the now Greens senator, Nick McKim. He went to every one of those 20 schools, spoke to the teachers, students and parents, and came back into Cabinet and argued against the closure of those schools. It is true to say that then-minister Nick McKim saved those 20 schools from being closed.
At the same time, the then shadow education spokesperson, Mr Ferguson, wrote letters to small rural and regional schools all over the state making completely untrue claims about ‘Labor and the Greens want to close your school’. Quite happy to divide and frighten small communities about their schools with a complete untruth. Where is the integrity in that?
Where is the integrity in a government that comes in here on one side of its face and crows about the fact that Tasmania is now net zero. Points to those climate graphs which show that in 2013, as a direct result of the forests that were set aside through the Tasmanian Forest Agreement, our emissions profile improved dramatically. It is because of those forests that were saved.
What Mr Ferguson never tells the truth about is that back in 2009, before the 2010 state election, it was the industry that came to then-premier David Bartlett almost on its knees and said, ‘We need a durable solution, we’re prepared to work with the environment movement, could you create a space here for us to have a future?’. The Tasmanian Forestry Agreement was in many ways led by industry and the environment movement working in partnership, sitting around a table, very aware of the impact that that would have on rural and regional communities, which is why Commonwealth and state governments provided tens of millions of dollars for transition. That is why, for example, we have the beautiful Derby Wild bike ride in the north east which, again, these hypocrites to my left love to laud as part of Tasmania’s tourism future. That was paid for by Tasmanian Forest Agreement money.
To have the Deputy Premier come in here and do his lolly because he is so offended by having his integrity questioned is quite something else.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines integrity as: ‘The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles’. Over the last nine years in this place, we have seen a persistent erosion of parliamentary standards, a veering away from accountability and transparency, an arrogant willingness to use their numbers in here to rubber-stamp legislation, shut down attempts to get information, and block transparency and accountability.
Again, we saw it from the Deputy Premier and Treasurer at the Estimates table when the one time he would not let his secretary, Tony Ferrall, answer a question was when Dr Woodruff was quizzing the minister across the table about what we know exists: the advice from Treasury and Finance to the Treasurer about stadium funding and the implications for Tasmania’s debt.
This Government has a problem with the truth. We are constantly gas-lit in here. It is cultural with this Government. We saw it again, also at the Estimates table, with Mr Barnett, who in response to three questions I asked about advice from State Growth, every time without hesitation, under sworn testimony, at the Estimates table, with his secretary sitting there next to him, Mr Barnett denied there was any advice on the stadium from State Growth. That was untrue. This Government does have an integrity problem.
For example, I remember when the former minister for Housing got up at the lectern, Peter Gutwein was then the premier, and we had a Cabinet minute in our hand showing that the Government intended to weaken protections for tenants. We asked the minister a straight question to confirm or deny that the Government was moving to weaken tenancy protections. Between his chair and the lectern, the former minister for housing decided not to tell the truth, and then he was busted. Back in the old days, like 10 or 15 years ago, Steve Kons, the former deputy premier, resigned for telling an untruth to parliament, because that was the standard that was set, even under the Lennon government but no consequence, none at all, for minister Jaensch, for telling a blatant and knowing falsehood at the table. No consequence for minister Barnett, who felt free not to be truthful at the Estimates table. A Treasurer who just got up and, in his typically sanctimonious way, gave us a lecture about integrity, but would not let his own Treasury secretary at the Estimates table confirm what we know to be true.
The litany of integrity issues under this Government is large.
