The Mercury: Tasmania: Saturday,
March 11, 2017.
Greens leader
Cassy O’Connor said the Right to Information response was received late on
Thursday but all relevant information had been excepted from release.
Ms O’Connor
had raised the delay in State Parliament the previous day.
The request
related to financial information about Safe Pathways, which was engaged by the
government until December when 11 children were removed from its care.
“Clearly,
every effort was made to provide a response that provided the minimum of
information,” Ms O’Connor said.
“There’s no
question that the government is in breach of the Right to Information act, it
broke the law in relation to our RTI request and we believe it’s because it
doesn’t want to tell Tasmanians how much money was spent on a for-profit
provider which we still maintain neglected children in its care.”
Ms O’Connor
said she would appeal to the Ombudsman.
Right to
Information expert Rick Snell agreed the Government had breached the act.
“Three months
in the handling of any [right to information] request is unreasonable, especially when at the end of the day
you get very little information back,” he said.
“It borders
on contempt, and it certainly is neglect.”
A Government
spokesman said RTI requests were handled at arm’s length by RTI officers.
Labor child
safety spokesman Josh Willie claimed Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma
misled parliament earlier in the week over statements that another care
provider, Key Assets, had been under investigation since January.
Mr Willie
claimed Key Assets said it was first contacted by the department to respond to
allegations raised by its foster carers on Thursday, rather than in January.
Ms Petrusma
disputed the claims.
She said her
department received and investigated a complaint from a carer about Key Assets
in January, and a further investigation began after a second email from the
foster carer outlining additional concerns was received last Saturday.
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