The Tasmanian Greens have asked a parliamentary committee to recall the state’s coordinator-general to answer questions about how his pro-stadium opinion piece came together.
In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee today, Rosalie Woodruff, Vica Bayley and Cassy O’Connor asked the committee to give John Perry a chance to “correct the record if required”.
They also asked the committee to invite others named in emails recently released to the ABC under right to information laws.
They include Tasmania Devils chief marketing officer Kath McCann, Master Builders Tasmania chief executive Jenna Cairney, the premier’s chief of staff and the deputy secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Perry’s roughly 3,000-word opinion piece ran in The Mercury on October 11, 2025, ahead of an upper house vote on the Macquarie Point stadium.
It argued the stadium and a Tasmanian AFL club would generate at least $220.9 million a year in new economic activity, against a $44.5 million annual financing cost. That equated to $4.97 for every dollar of financing.
The government has described the work as independent. A government spokesperson told the ABC, which requested the emails, it was done “in accordance with his duties”.
“Attracting investment is what Mr Perry is employed to do,” the spokesperson said.
Perry appeared before the committee on October 22, 2025 and made a statutory declaration.
He told members the work was “my view” and “my opinion piece”.
Labor MP Dean Winter asked whether writing the piece was his idea. “It’s absolutely my idea,” Perry said.
Winter asked whether he had spoken to anyone in the government media office or anyone else in government about writing and submitting the editorial.
“Yes, of course, because I had to get approval in order to do it,” Perry said.
Committee chair Ruth Forrest later asked who had reviewed it.
“The opinion piece that I wrote, nobody reviewed it in terms of – what do you mean, sort of in terms of marking it or approving it,” Perry said.
He said he had shared it internally just before it was released and had sought some input from people outside government but not inside it. He said he had spoken to the football club.
In a written answer to the committee later that month, Perry set out his timeline.
He said he first flagged his intention to write the piece in correspondence telling the premier and his chief of staff he needed medical leave on September 18, 2025 and Minister Felix Ellis the next day.
He said he presented a summary of the economic analysis to the premier and treasurer on September 22, 2025 and sought permission to publish once it was finalised.
Perry said that on October 10, 2025 he gave his final version to people with “regular contact with the media” to release on his behalf, then emailed the premier, treasurer and chief of staff a copy as a heads up. The piece ran the next day.
The Greens say the emails show more than Perry told the committee.
Perry sent Cairney an early draft on September 30, 2025, telling her he was “very keen for your thoughts and suggestions”.
She replied that a later version was “looking really really great” and said she would “have another stab of it overnight” to cut the opening section to a workable length.
The next morning Cairney wrote that she had “whipped up” a draft media release “for a news lead”.
On October 3, 2025, a departmental email told Perry the government’s response to the Tasmanian Planning Commission report would go to MPs the following Tuesday and be released publicly on the Wednesday.
The email said the DPAC deputy secretary had asked about the timing of the opinion piece and was hoping its release could be timed with the public release of the report.
The piece ran three days after the report was made public.
The emails show Perry sent a draft to McCann and the DPAC deputy secretary on October 8, 2025, copying in the premier’s chief of staff.
He wrote that some figures were still being checked and asked them to call him once they had reviewed it.
The Greens say that differs from his evidence, which described providing a finished piece as a heads up two days later.
The emails show Perry sent the final version to McCann and Cairney early on October 10, thanking them for providing it to the media.
The Greens say he did not tell the committee who those people were.
Cairney edited The Mercury until 2021. She later worked as communications director in the premier’s office.
The Greens argue State Service principles, which public servants must uphold under the Code of Conduct, require agency actions to remain “independent from the party political system, political bias and political influence”.
They say Perry had an opportunity to disclose the stakeholders’ involvement but did not.
The request follows an exchange in the House of Assembly yesterday.
Woodruff asked Premier Jeremy Rockliff whether it was appropriate for a public servant bound to be apolitical to publish a piece drafted and edited with the Devils and Master Builders.
Rockliff did not address that point directly.
“I would be staggered if the coordinator-general’s office did anything but provide economic opportunity for Tasmanians,” he told the House.
He confirmed Perry had briefed him and sought permission to publish.
“He asked permission to put out the opinion piece and we said yes,” he said.
The ABC has previously reported the emails were provided nine months after they were requested.
