Lack of transparency enough reason for MPs – and voters – to lose confidence in Michael Ferguson

Lack of transparency could spell trouble for Michael Ferguson. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Michael Ferguson was a young man when he did something stupid and entered bankruptcy to get himself out of it.

Is it forgivable? That’s probably a question for the drivers left out of pocket by his manoeuvre, which followed a car accident he caused, in a vehicle he had failed to insure.

Should it preclude him from being Treasurer? Probably not. It was, after all, a long time ago. Which of us didn’t do something stupid in our early adulthood?

The point that appears lost on the politician of 20 years, however, is this: Tasmanians had a right to know their Treasurer – presiding over almost $10bn in expenditure of their money each year – is a former bankrupt, whatever the circumstances.

That’s especially so when he’s busily increasing state debt to levels some senior economists and business leaders believe are unsustainable and irresponsible.

Failing to disclose his former bankruptcy to voters – at any of the seven elections he has faced – is a curious approach to transparency.

And it is transparency – or the lack of it – that may help bring an end to Ferguson’s career, as early as next week.

Tasmanians have had to rely on a parliamentary inquiry to get to the bottom of cost and time blowouts in two new Bass Strait passenger ferries, and the stunning failure to build a wharf capable of accommodating them.

Ferguson’s economical responses to questions in parliament will form a key component of the case against him, should Labor next week move a motion of no confidence in him.

Labor is yet to commit to such a motion, wanting first to know it will succeed. So far, support for no confidence in Ferguson has 17 votes among 35 MPs: Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers Andrew Jenner and Kristie Johnston.

One more – either David O’Byrne or Craig Garland – and Ferguson is toast.

Both undecided independents seem reluctant to support a no-confidence motion, having promised stability. However, neither has ruled it out and they are weighing the evidence.

A vote of no confidence in Ferguson would see him go from acting Premier to backbencher quicker than it takes to drive past a give-way sign.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff could – on his return from a trade mission on Monday – up the ante and warn any such vote would be viewed as an expression of no confidence in the minority government itself.

That could be enough to scare O’Byrne and Garland into submission. Or it could just add to the sense of a failing, flailing government with a ship-sized transparency problem.

The loss of Ferguson to the backbench – or even from parliament – would be a significant blow to the Liberals. Whatever his failings, the former teacher is one of the government’s most experienced operatives, and cabinet candidates are in short supply.