Former Racing Minister Jane Howlett has declined to say whether a statutory declaration she tabled in parliament remains accurate and has denied that a publicly funded staffer spent months working on her election campaign.
Howlett faced sustained questioning at the House of Assembly Select Committee on Caretaker Conventions on Friday over contact between her office and TasRacing during the 2025 election campaign.
She was also grilled over claims a Ministerial and Parliamentary Services staffer undertook campaign work for her during the 2024 election.
Howlett quit cabinet in June over a dispute about a $400,000 legal bill linked to a secret Supreme Court case. She remains the member for Lyons.
Friday’s committee focused on a statutory declaration from her former chief of staff, tabled by Howlett, which said he was not aware of TasRacing’s plan to issue public communication about the Liberals’ TasInsure policy.
The committee has since obtained an email sent to the chief of staff at 4:52pm on 2 July 2025 by Corcomms Executive Chairman Nick Turner, whose firm handles TasRacing’s communications.
The email was headed “message to industry” and set out the wording to be distributed.
“How can you say that he wasn’t aware a message was going generally to industry when the subject heading is literally message to industry?” committee deputy chair Dean Winter asked.
“I can’t comment on any communication that I wasn’t privy to,” Howlett said.
Asked whether she believed the declaration was still accurate, Howlett said she was not going to comment.
Told that failing to withdraw it meant she stood by it, she said she would need to seek advice, adding there was “no evidence that it’s false”.
Winter told the hearing the maximum penalty for a false statutory declaration was 15 years imprisonment.
Making a false statement in a statutory declaration is a crime under section 113 of the Criminal Code Act 1924.
Howlett said her former chief of staff stood by his declaration and that it was not a matter for her.
Turner told the committee in June he provided a version of what TasRacing was going to say to the minister’s office and said he could not speak to Howlett’s earlier assurance that nobody in her office knew.
TasRacing chief executive Andrew Jenkins had earlier told the committee he learned TasInsure would cover the racing industry from Howlett’s office.
Asked whether she was “100% sure” she had never asked TasRacing to issue the message, Howlett said she was not.
“I’m not saying I’m 100% sure, I’m saying that we spoke about many things,” she said.
Howlett took responsibility for a Facebook post and comment on her page linking to TasRacing material about TasInsure during the caretaker period, saying she removed it and corrected the record.
Winter told her the post was still visible. Asked three times whether she personally made the post, she would not say.
Former staffer Shari Ann Minnikin-Smith told the committee in July she worked “100% for Jane Howlett” on campaign tasks including doorknocking.
Howlett rejected that claim, saying Minnikin-Smith worked for Ministerial and Parliamentary Services and volunteered across Lyons as a Liberal Party member.
She said she was “sure” she would have asked Minnikin-Smith to send campaign material to Tasman Peninsula residents but denied asking her to use her parliamentary email, describing it as an error the staffer apologised for.
The email was sent at 9:03pm on 22 March 2024, the night before the state election.
Minnikin-Smith told the committee the email was sent “in the work time” and said “It was not my mistake”.
“I don’t know if she used public resources or not,” Howlett said, before declining to answer further and pointing to an investigation the premier has asked the head of the state service to conduct.
Her former chief of staff has not appeared before the committee, which Howlett said was not her decision.
