Rockliff reshuffle won’t make legal fees scandal go away
Premier Rockliff has abandoned plans to appoint a new Cabinet Minister, instead carving up Madeleine Ogilvie’s portfolios among existing Ministers.
That tells Tasmanians everything they need to know. Premier Rockliff clearly can’t even trust anyone in his team.
Even after losing a Minister to the legal fees scandal, Premier Rockliff still couldn’t find a place for Roger Jaensch, the Minister he dumped after the last election to make room for far-right Liberals Gavin Pearce and Felix Ellis.
And the artist formerly known as Michael Ferguson – the architect of the Spirits fiasco, who wasted more than half a billion dollars because he forgot to build a berth at Devonport – has also been left on the backbench.
But shifting Madeleine Ogilvie’s portfolios around the Cabinet table does not answer a single question about the scandal engulfing Premier Rockliff’s Government.
Every Cabinet Minister still needs to come clean.
- When did they know Madeleine Ogilvie had initiated Supreme Court proceedings, and was it before she misled Parliament in November?
- When did they know she misled Parliament?
- Did they raise concerns and direct her to correct the record, or did they sit quietly while the cover-up continued?
After 13 years, the Liberals have become arrogant, secretive, and allergic to accountability.
It says everything that the Liberals are reportedly refusing to hold a press conference or take questions on camera about today’s reshuffle. They are doing everything they can to avoid answering questions about the legal fees scandal and treating Tasmanians with utter contempt.
Premier Rockliff and his Ministers must front up, tell the truth, and answer the questions they have spent all week dodging.
