Labor pushes Premier to probe TasRacing’s election post backing key government policy

The opposition has ramped up the pressure over TasRacing’s backing of government policy during the election, with Labor leader Josh Willie calling for an official investigation.

Ella Haddad on Parliament Lawns.

The Tasmanian opposition has ramped up its attack over TasRacing’s backing of Liberal government policy during the election campaign, with Labor leader Josh Willie calling on Premier Jeremy Rockliff to officially investigate how the state-owned company came to know key details about the TasInsure scheme before their public release.

In a letter to the Premier on Sunday, Mr Willie said a TasRacing text message sent to industry participants on 3 July had spruiked workers compensation insurance options not included the government’s TasInsure announcement of the previous day, and not available on the proposed insurer’s website.

The opposition leader said while he accepted the Premier’s acknowledgment last week that TasRacing’s communications – which also included a press release and website post – were inappropriate and should not have occurred, serious questions remained about when the racing authority learnt of specific TasInsure products.

Mr Willie said although the chair of TasRacing had quickly taken steps to remove the material, with the CEO also taking responsibility for authorising the communications, Racing Minister Jane Howlett’s admitted sharing of racing body’s posts on her own social media account had been described as an “egregious breach” of Tasmania’s caretaker conventions.

“After being caught red-handed misleading the parliament about her knowledge of these communications, we acknowledge that the Minister for Racing, Jane Howlett MP has now corrected the record regarding when she first became aware of TasRacing’s conduct,” Mr Willie wrote.

“However, significant concerns remain unresolved.

“Labor is calling on you to show leadership and take action on all these matters and to immediately initiate the relevant investigations into TasRacing’s conduct, the source of the information they published and whether it came from anybody from within the government or Liberal Party, and the actions of your Minister.”

Labor spokesperson for Justice and Integrity, Ella Haddad, said the opposition was open to working with the parliamentary cross-bench to hold the minority Liberal government to account over the issue.

“There used to be standards in this place, and consequences for doing the wrong thing,” Ms Haddad said.

“But what we have now is a premier who thinks that he can brush all of this aside with a sound bite, when it’s actually really serious to see ministers misleading parliament and potentially giving political information to a state owned company to share with their members.

“If the premier won’t formally investigate this, we have to ask ourselves, what is he trying to hide?”

Speaking in Launceston, the Premier said that the chair of TasRacing removed the TasInsure post immediately after he became aware it, and that the government was seeking advice about whether any aspects of the incident had breached the state’s caretaker conventions.

When asked if he would launch an investigation into TasRacing early knowledge of TasInsure’s workers compensation insurance products, the Premier said the matter had “been dealt with in parliament”.

“The minister’s made it very clear there was an action taken when the chair was alerted to the post, took action and the post was taken down,” Mr Rockliff said.

“Can I say this, that Tasmanians want cheaper insurance, fairer insurance.

“There were many [other] media releases issued at the time, including from TasFarmers, and so many stakeholders and Tasmanians want cheaper insurance.

“And if the Labor Party keeps wanting to talk about it, I’m happy to talk about cheaper insurance for Tasmanians, because that’s exactly what they’ve been calling for a long time now, a fairer system.

“The market is broken, with $6 billion of profit from the insurance industry across Australia and a 35 per cent increase in premiums.

“And what we want to ensure with TasInsure is that Tasmanians have cheaper, fairer insurance.”