The Liberal government owes Tasmanians an explanation over the secretive allocation of its 2021 taxpayer-funded election grants.
Right to Information documents revealed by the ABC show more than half of the Tasmanian Liberal Party's 2021 grants were handed out through a secretive process, which avoided normal parliamentary scrutiny.
The documents reveal that former Premier Peter Gutwein's office and senior treasury officials bypassed Parliament to secretly fund 111 projects worth $2.47 million under the Local Community Facilities Fund before then end of the 2020-2021 financial year.
Not only does this demonstrate the lengths this government will go to to hide things from Tasmanians, it is also at odds with assurances to Parliament from Communities Minister Nic Street that the commitments "were all in last year's budget, listed, funded and approved by Parliament".
It also comes on top of earlier revelations that election grants were awarded to organisations associated with family members of Mr Street, as well as then-Liberal candidates Madeleine Ogilvie and Mark Shelton and the workplace of Liberal candidate Lara Alexander.
This is a serious misuse of taxpayer funds and it has rightly been questioned by prominent legal experts including Geoffrey Watson SC, a director with the Centre for Public Integrity.
Labor has no argument with community clubs and organisations receiving public funding but without an honest, open, merit-based process, the public can have no confidence that grants have been awarded fairly.
If the allocation of these grants was above board, the government would have gone through the Parliament for the funding, instead of secretly dipping into the Treasurer's Reserve, which is designed for unforeseen urgent spending in times of need.
Tasmanians have a right to know how their money is being spent and secretly pork-barrelling taxpayer funds is unacceptable. This government owes all Tasmanians an explanation.
Ella Haddad MP
Shadow Attorney General
