The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has written to urge the Integrity Commission to use its powers to finally get to the bottom of the financial collapse of Forestry Tasmania.
The Integrity Commission Act allows the Board of the Integrity Commission to conduct an investigation in relation to misconduct and for the Board to recommend to the Premier a Commission of Inquiry be established.
• Download a copy of Mr Wilkie’s letter to the Integrity Commission and his speech last week in Federal Parliament calling for a Commission of Inquiry into Forestry Tasmania:
Integrity_Commission_should_act_on_FT.pdf
• Isla MacGregor in Comments: Congratulations Andrew. Tasmanians who have battled for decades for a proper anti corruption commission in Tasmania will be watching carefully the response from the TIC to your request for an independent investigation. The time has come for Tasmania’s so-called anti-corruption watchdog to be put to the test over a matter very much in the public interest. If the TIC fails this test, Tasmanian taxpayers should be sending a very loud and clear message to the Government that this agency must be closed down forthwith.
• PB in Comments: In my view, the Tasmanian Integrity Commission (TIC) is the last organisation which should be entrusted to carry out such an investigation having previously dismissed substantive complaints regarding misconduct on forestry related matters including: 1. the shonky pulp mill assessment process …
• Paul Harriss, Will Hodgman: McKay Timber expansion a sign of further confidence … “The Government is unflinching in its support of the Forest Industry and we have already secured 50 jobs through the Government’s changes to the Sawmill Assistance Program to keep mills open and Tasmanians in work. …
MEANWHILE … another spectacular failure … ?
• Mercury: Closure fears for failed Maydena tourism development Eagles Eyrie
• Clive Stott in Comments From the Integrity Commission website … It is one of the three primary objectives of the Integrity Commission to: Enhance public confidence that misconduct by public officers will be appropriately investigated and dealt with. And, One of the key objectives of the Commission is to enhance public confidence that misconduct in the public sector will be dealt with appropriately, because the commission undertakes its functions on the basis of facts and evidence – DIANE MERRYFULL, Integrity Commission, chief executive officer, Examiner letters May 23 2015 The key words here are: Misconduct, public officers, public sector, its function, appropriately investigated, facts and evidence, dealt with, dealt with appropriately.
• Pete Godfrey in Comments HERE: … I seem to recall that Mckay investments closed down the St Helens Sawmill after they took the $2.75 million sawlog quota buyback. So what is all this crowing about saving 10 jobs. It may seem like nitpicking but somehow it is worth saving 10 jobs in the forest industry but getting rid of nearly 800 public servants and 180 teachers is necessary. Go figure …
• Robin Charles Halton, in Comments: Eventually forestry will have to be scrutinised more closely! The Ta Ann issue concerns me personally as I did not simply work for FT for over 30 years of service to see our younger wet forests regrowth end up in a foreign owned laminate peeling plant. At some stage prior to 2026/27 both the surviving native forest sawmillers and Ta Ann will need to be reassessed for resource security prior to renewal of contracts. In the case of Ta Ann their value to the States economy needs evaluating, the promise to construct a value adding ply manufacturing plant in the State as promised by Evan Rolley on signing the TFA plus the $26M government pay back for resource allocation forfeiture was seen as a positive sign for the value adding opportunity to occur as well as being aware of the true resource availability at hand. In a way silver service to Ta Ann, we need their response. Again I state Forest Minister Harriss should be more open about the forest industry. The other days budget session with the MLC’s was a perilous journey for the Minister who should have been more upbeat with his responsibilities instead he acted like a trapped idiot. Like myself many forestry staff present and past would expect more from a Minister who is responsible to oversee the best for our State Forests, in particular protection of our younger regrowth WPZ’s.
EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …
• Andrew Wilkie: Time for a Royal Commission into Forestry Tasmania
• Clive Stott, http://www.cleanairtas.com: A better use for ‘Comfort Money’ …
Isla MacGregor
June 11, 2015 at 15:33
Congratulations Andrew. Tasmanians who have battled for decades for a proper anti corruption commission in Tasmania will be watching carefully the response from the TIC to your request for an independent investigation.
The time has come for Tasmania’s so-called anti-corruption watchdog to be put to the test over a matter very much in the public interest. If the TIC fails this test, Tasmanian taxpayers should be sending a very loud and clear message to the Government that this agency must be closed down forthwith.
john hayward
June 11, 2015 at 16:05
Unfortunately, the Tas Integrity Commission appears to be a marionette, owned by one of the subjects of the proposed investigation.
Equally unfortunate is the fact that the owner is thought to suffer from a condition which blocks the sensations of shame, embarrassment, and conscience.
John Hayward
PB
June 11, 2015 at 21:13
In my view, the Tasmanian Integrity Commission (TIC) is the last organisation which should be entrusted to carry out such an investigation having previously dismissed substantive complaints regarding misconduct on forestry related matters including:
1. the shonky pulp mill assessment process despite TIC having the power under clause 35.1 (d) of the Integrity Commission Act 2009 to recommend that a Commission of Inquiry be established under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1995
2. Forestry Tasmania converting over 6,000 hectares of native forest to plantations after announcing on 1 June 2007 an end to the broad scale conversion of State-owned native forests to plantations … effective today and which exceeds the target set by the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement to phase out conversion of native forests on public land by 2010
3. the misuse by Forestry Tasmania of public funds provided through the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement expended on the conversion of native forests to plantations after it had claimed to cease this practice and also using the funds to meet operating expenses instead of spending them as intended
4. the commencement and undertaking of earthworks by Gunns at the Tamar Valley pulp mill site after the permits expired on 30 August 2011
5. the failure by members of the Legislative Council Select Committee on the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Bill 2012 to declare a conflict of interest by way of their receipt of financial gifts from companies (such as Ta Ann) set to benefit from the Bill and/or their membership of Timber Communities Australia, a body to be represented on the Special Council established under the Bill
6. the payment of $26 million in taxpayer funded compensation to Ta Ann Tasmania (TAT) for a 40% reduction in its contracted wood supply for peeler billets from State forests despite the Independent Verification Group finding that native forests alone could not satisfy wood supply guarantees made when TAT Executive Director, Evan Rolley, was Managing Director of Forestry Tasmania
This has been compounded by the refusal of the Joint Standing Committee on Integrity, chaired by Ivan Dean MLC, to post a submission into the protracted Three Year Review detailing these matters on its website:
http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/ctee/Joint/Integrity.htm
Given that there appears to be a systemic campaign within Tas Inc to conceal all evidence of impropriety in the Tasmanian forest industry I consider that a Royal Commission/Commission of Inquiry demands to be established as a matter of priority comprising a genuinely independent and non-Tasmanian panel with no vested interests.
Pete Godfrey
June 11, 2015 at 23:38
Having been to the enquiry that set up the Integrity Commission and giving my submission personally. I can assure people that it was never meant to actually do anything like inquire into the forest industry. One of the panel members suggested that we probably only need to supply public servants and politicians with ethics training. I was also told that we did not have organised crime in Tasmania and therefore we did not need a full blown ICAC like N.S.W. has.
You see like the Queensland of Jo Bjelke Peterson, we do things differently here.
Clive Stott
June 12, 2015 at 06:24
From the Integrity Commission website …
It is one of the three primary objectives of the Integrity Commission to:
Enhance public confidence that misconduct by public officers will be appropriately investigated and dealt with.
And,
One of the key objectives of the Commission is to enhance public confidence that misconduct in the public sector will be dealt with appropriately, because the commission undertakes its functions on the basis of facts and evidence – DIANE MERRYFULL, Integrity Commission, chief executive officer, Examiner letters May 23 2015
The key words here are:
Misconduct, public officers, public sector, its function, appropriately investigated, facts and evidence, dealt with, dealt with appropriately.
The Integrity Commission website is at http://www.integrity.tas.gov.au/what_we_do
Simon Warriner
June 12, 2015 at 12:12
Whenever the governing party employs ex journo’s to “spin” their message you can never, ever, take any of the words used at face value.
This will only change when we stop electing people whose actions are disconnected from their words by their conflicted interests.
When you stop taking sides and look objectively at how party politics works this is so blinding obvious. It is embarrassing to look back at the ignorance that allowed such a scrawny carcase to be paraded naked before the public, clad only in the stupidity of a gullible public.
Arguing for any investigation before a government committed to getting to the truth is in place is an exercise in frustration at best because you are expecting people with conflicted interests to reveal those interests that are conflicted and the means by which that happened.
The real task is “how do we get un-conflicted individuals in to government?”
Robin Charles Halton
June 13, 2015 at 01:59
Eventually forestry will have to be scrutinised more closely!
The Ta Ann issue concerns me personally as I did not simply work for FT for over 30 years of service to see our younger wet forests regrowth end up in a foreign owned laminate peeling plant.
At some stage prior to 2026/27 both the surviving native forest sawmillers and Ta Ann will need to be reassessed for resource security prior to renewal of contracts.
In the case of Ta Ann their value to the States economy needs evaluating, the promise to construct a value adding ply manufacturing plant in the State as promised by Evan Rolley on signing the TFA plus the $26M government pay back for resource allocation forfeiture was seen as a positive sign for the value adding opportunity to occur as well as being aware of the true resource availability at hand.
In a way silver service to Ta Ann, we need their response.
Again I state Forest Minister Harriss should be more open about the forest industry.
The other days budget session with the MLC’s was a perilous journey for the Minister who should have been more upbeat with his responsibilities instead he acted like a trapped idiot.
Like myself many forestry staff present and past would expect more from a Minister who is responsible to oversee the best for our State Forests, in particular protection of our younger regrowth WPZ’s.
Treeger
June 13, 2015 at 12:41
I understand that Paul Harriss and Abbott are both devout Catholic. Forest furnaces do not reconcile with what the Pope is decreeing, especially using our money to build them.
This may be their opportunity to shake off evil corporate masters and go back to the Creator, God.
Amen
Treeger
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/13/pope-francis-intervention-transforms-climate-change-debate
William Boeder
June 14, 2015 at 00:43
#5. Pete Godfrey, I had twice read your personal presented submission to the Joint Parliamentary Inquiry some 3 months ago and upon these readings did agree with all the points you brought forward.
#4. PB, your view and summation of this specific inquiry is undeniably correct.
This TIC was established to become a means of a collective centre that would dilute and or to arbitrarily dismiss complaints against all and every State politician, also to warn these conspiring malfeasants, as to the nature of what each complaint consisted of.
(But from a hands off distance) so as not to be seen invading the domain of privacy and restricted notice.
Indeed it was designed to be counter to its imprimatur, of ensuring the integrity of governnment and its every department.
O'Brien
June 14, 2015 at 02:29
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20)
What pithy, pathetic utterance can we expect will eventually emanate from the very public officials and elected representatives responsible for integrity and justice in this land? What hope or faith can we maintain if this foul rotten racket remains unchallenged and unexamined?
Clive Stott
June 14, 2015 at 13:24
“Environmental justice is defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies†– US EPA
Carol Rea
June 15, 2015 at 04:38
What a quote from Mr Gillies who got $900,000 but didn’t think he had been treated well by forestry.
The issue is he feels that this is realistic thinking. A symptom of the Forestry handout history and consequent mind set of so many.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-15/tasmanian-forestry-contractors-paid-exit-grants-still-operating/6547856?section=tas
Simon Warriner
June 15, 2015 at 15:40
Jason Weller was not my first pick as a hero, but the man is surely hitting his straps. Not only has he ripped the scab of a dirty little rort that was being muttered about on national television, but he is helping a friend sort out a right of way dispute that has dragged on for decades, no thanks to an incompetent municipal authority and some rather spineless individuals. The serial litigant on the other side of that dispute might just have met its match!.
William Boeder
June 15, 2015 at 22:27
The people of Tasmania must be alerted to the not very well known fact that anything to do with Forestry Tasmania and its contractors employed are effectively covered under their especially created laws for this GBE’s Captains all, those expensive-suited cronies wholly responsible for the pirating of Tasmania’s once abundant Crown Land forests.
These exclusive laws are set well above the laws that govern the people of this State.
Have a good look at the performances of Paul Harriss, the best mate of Ta Ann in Tasmania and of their high Lord Taib Mahmud, owner/operator of the multitudinous pine-oil plantations and the clear-felled mountain ranges throughout distant Sarawak.