The Mercury: Australia: Friday, March 31, 2017.
THE State
Government’s determination to keep secret a key document relating to the energy
crisis has resulted in the Treasurer risking a potential contempt of
parliament.
Treasurer
Peter Gutwein has defied a summons issued by the Public Accounts Committee to
get the Government to hand over a full copy of a letter relating to the sale of
the Tamar Valley power station.
The committee
views the letter as a missing piece in the puzzle of the energy crisis and has
failed in a number of attempts to get the State Government to hand over the
full document.
But the State
Government has refused to comply, arguing the redacted section of the 2015
letter from Mr Gutwein to Energy Minister Matthew Groom is covered by Cabinet
in confidence.
During a
tense hearing lasting 20 minutes, Mr Gutwein clashed with chairman Ivan Dean
MLC and accused the committee of being a “kangaroo court”.
Mr Gutwein
came with a prepared statement but was shut down a number of times by Mr Dean
who said he simply wanted a yes or no answer to the summons.
“I don’t
intend to open this up to discussion on anything other than the reason that
document is not being produced,” Mr Dean said.
In his
rationale for defying the summons, Mr Gutwein raised an example from five years
ago in which former premier Lara Giddings cited Cabinet in confidence in a
refusal to hand over a document to a parliamentary committee.
He also used
the fact that an independent Right to Information officer had already decided
to redact the section of the letter after deeming it Cabinet in confidence.
When Mr
Gutwein began to attack the committee for being politically tainted and beset
by leaks, he was shut down by Mr Dean.
“I will not
provide you with any opportunity to provide any criticism of this committee at
all,” Mr Dean said.
Mr Gutwein
said it was extraordinary that Mr Dean was preventing him from reading his
statement.
“This reeks
of a kangaroo court,” he said.
Outside
Parliament, Mr Gutwein took his chance to further lay into the committee, which
is made up of three independent MLCs, two Liberal MPs and one Labor MP.
“To gag a
minister of the Crown from providing a statement to a parliamentary committee
is unheard of,” Mr Gutwein said.
“… If that
redacted part of the letter said I was the world’s best Treasurer, I would not
be releasing that information. It is Cabinet information clearly covered by the
Right to Information Act and, importantly, hundreds of years of precedent.”
However, the
state’s foremost Right to Information expert Rick Snell said a Cabinet in
confidence determination of an RTI officer was not a good enough reason to keep
a document secret.
“What they
seem to be arguing here is there is some quasi-legal reason for non-release,
rather than it being purely political,” he said.
“This is a
fairly desperate call to make the claim because a low-level RTI officer in a
department thinks [the document] possibly meets that criteria.”
University of
Tasmania corporate governance expert Tom Baxter said the Government’s actions
favoured Cabinet secrecy over government accountability and respect for
Parliament.
“The
Treasurer’s approach risks contempt of parliament, and escalates the dispute.
So it’s high stakes,” he said. “First, even if the letter is a Cabinet record,
the Premier can choose to release it.
“Second, the
Public Accounts Committee has its own Act, prohibiting disclosure of secret or
confidential evidence. So the Treasurer could have given the committee the
letter in private, but argued against its public disclosure if Cabinet in
confidence.”
Labor also
continues to dispute that a letter from one minister to another can be
considered Cabinet in confidence.
Deputy
Opposition Leader Michelle O’Byrne said the Treasurer’s behaviour in the
committee showed the Liberals were willing to go to remarkable lengths to hide
this document from the public.
“The Liberals
have been desperate to cover up their role in the energy crisis but today it’s
reached a whole new level,” she said.
Greens leader
Cassy O’Connor said the Liberals’ determination to hide the information was
“clearly the Liberals attempting to cover their backsides”.
The committee
intends to table its report on Mr Gutwein’s refusal to release the document,
along with a special report addressing accusations of leaks, when State
Parliament resumes next Tuesday.
It will then
be up to each House to determine its course of action over potential contempt
of parliament.
.JPG)
.JPG)
