A parliamentary inquiry has found the Tasmanian government and Tasracing broke caretaker rules during last year’s state election.
The House of Assembly Select Committee on Caretaker Conventions tabled its report today with 28 findings and six recommendations.
Caretaker conventions aim to stop an outgoing government binding the next one or using public resources to help a party.
On July 2 last year, state-owned Tasracing told racing participants the Liberals’ TasInsure policy “will be established by a Liberal government if re-elected” and was “a positive development”.
The committee found the message was requested by chief executive Andrew Jenkins, drafted by Nick Turner from CorComms and emailed to Luke Gaetani, a senior adviser to then-racing minister Jane Howlett.
Turner replied to Jenkins: “Luke says ok for tonight now.”
Howlett told parliament last year she did not believe she had been involved.
Two statutory declarations from Gaetani, prepared with administrative help from the premier’s office, were later tabled.
The committee found the declarations “inconsistent with the evidence received” and said the extent of the office’s involvement “cannot be definitively closed”.
Howlett resigned as racing minister in June.
The committee found a second Tasracing breach involving the Launceston Greyhound Racing Club.
It found no breach over the Marinus Link deal, signed on August 1 last year.
But it found Premier Jeremy Rockliff “publicly mischaracterised” the rules by asking then-Labor leader Dean Winter to endorse the deal by 9am on July 31. The rules only require consultation.
MPs were given two hours, on less than a day’s notice, to read documents they could not take away. The committee found that “inadequate”.
The business case was not released early as promised, which ministers said protected negotiations with the Commonwealth.
The committee found then-treasurer Guy Barnett followed the rules by phoning then-shadow treasurer Josh Willie before approving a temporary $410 million increase to TT-Line’s borrowing limit on July 26 last year.
Willie said the decision had effectively been made and he was not told about the auditor-general’s solvency concerns.
The committee found the government breached the rules by extending advertising for its May budget while a no-confidence motion was before parliament.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet told the inquiry: “The conventions apply to making decisions, not to their announcement.”
The ads ran with Pulse Tasmania, which gave evidence to the inquiry and removed them on its own initiative before the caretaker period began.
The inquiry was widened in August after former staffer Sharee Minnikin-Smith said she worked for Howlett, including on her 2024 Lyons campaign, while formally employed by upper house MP Leonie Hiscutt.
She also said she campaigned for Kerry Vincent in the 2024 Prosser election, where she was injured and received workers’ compensation.
The committee said if she was a volunteer, she was likely not entitled to compensation.
If it was paid work, it likely should have been declared and Vincent would have exceeded the $19,500 spending cap. Vincent did not respond to the committee.
Howlett told the inquiry Minnikin-Smith “was not employed by me” and has described the help as voluntary.
Dissenting committee member Marcus Vermey wrote “a number of claims made by an individual under parliamentary privilege are disputed by the government”.
Rockliff has asked the head of the state service to investigate and the committee wants the findings made public.
It also recommends compulsory caretaker training for the heads of government businesses and clearer rules for consulting MPs.
