Gunns will need to get moving fast to beat the 2013...

Gunns will need to get moving fast to beat the 2013 deadline


Tasmanian pulp mill escapes toothless watchdog

by: Matthew Denholm, Tasmania correspondent
From:The Australian
April 19, 201212:00AM

TASMANIA'S anti-corruption watchdog has declared itself a toothless tiger, complaining it lacks "sufficient powers" to properly investigate whether the Lennon government colluded with Gunns to fast-track its pulp mill.

The extraordinary comments cast serious doubt on the adequacy of the Integrity Commission, created by former premier David Bartlett in response to the pulp mill and other scandals.

In a report leaked yesterday, the commission's acting chief executive, Russell Pearce, said while in some cases collusion "might constitute misconduct", in others his team lacked sufficient powers to launch a "productive investigation".

The report said that, although the act of parliament governing the commission "purports" to give it powers to ask questions and demand information, it also maintained rights against self-incrimination. "In other words . . . the IC has no effective coercive powers to compel evidence
"Any investigation of this or any other related allegation would be at real risk of being frustrated by the inability of the commission to compel answers, and would be unlikely therefore to achieve a definitive outcome."

The report, leaked by complainants to the Tasmanian Times website, revealed the IC considered delaying its assessment of the allegations in anticipation that "at some point" parliament might grant it sufficient powers.

However, with a review several years away, this would further delay an investigation into what were already historic allegations, dating from 2007. "To further delay finalising this matter in the hope of legislative amendment at some future time is not considered a reasonable outcome," Mr Pearce said in the report.

The same lack of power was used by Mr Pearce to explain the commission's decision not to investigate related allegations that a planning chief's appointment as a magistrate was dumped as "payback" for his release of information about the mill.

One complainant, Friends of the Tamar Valley, last night called for a review of the commission's powers, or at least of the interpretation of them relied on to deny a full investigation.

Vanessa Bleyer, lawyer for the group, said: "The IC is saying that it is a toothless tiger. We have a situation where the misconduct complained of escapes scrutiny because the IC thinks it doesn't have the powers to investigate it.

"(It means) the IC is not there to do what it was created to do: investigate alleged misconduct by public officials."

Tasmanian Attorney General Brian Wightman was last night "carefully considering" the commission's report before making detailed comment. However, he suggested a rethink of the commission's powers was unlikely before a scheduled review at the end of next year.

"The Tasmanian parliament has determined the commission's current powers and the appropriate time for determining whether they are adequate will be at the three-year review in 2013," Mr Wightman said.

While dismissing the complaints about the mill process, the commission said that, in relation to two of them, its lack of coercive powers was a reason for the decision not to proceed to an investigation. One complaint alleges then-premier Paul Lennon secretly colluded with Gunns to have it withdraw the pulp mill from the state's planning umpire, allowing him to justify the fast track of the project.

Unknown to the public, by March 9, 2007, the state's planning commission had drafted a letter to Gunns informing it the project was "critically non-compliant". It later emerged, via Freedom of Information, that this letter was not sent, at the request of Mr Lennon's chief bureaucrat, Linda Hornsey.

Gunns then withdrew from the planning body on March 14, citing unacceptable delays, and the government responded by introducing an alternative fast-track assessment by consultants.

Mr Lennon, Ms Hornsey and Gunns have strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Planning chief Simon Cooper has given evidence to a parliamentary committee that Mr Lennon told him before March 14, 2007, that Gunns would quit the planning process on that day.

Mr Lennon has denied this, saying he had no knowledge before March 14.

In 2009, an upper house committee found "credible evidence" that Mr Cooper's planned appointment as a magistrate was sabotaged as "payback" for his release under FoI of the March 9 letter to Gunns