Public call-out slammed
A Tasmanian MLC has been called to apologise after making allegations against specific public servants.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has strongly refuted claims that regulatory and oversight officials were implicated in misconduct allegations by the state's child sexual abuse commission of inquiry.
Independent upper house MP Meg Webb this week used parliamentary privilege to name 22 current and former Tasmanian public servants who she suggested might have faced allegations of misconduct.
Mr Rockliff has condemned her speech as legally incorrect and called for an apology.
The commission of inquiry issued 30 section 18 misconduct notices, with only one finding of misconduct against former Launceston General Hospital medical services director Peter Renshaw. The identities of the other 21 individuals who received notices remain confidential.
Meg Webb listed the 22 individuals and eight departments that provided “Procedural Fairness Responses” to the commission, implying they might have received section 18 notices.
However, Rockliff says such responses do not indicate wrongdoing or receipt of misconduct notices.
He said that responses could be as simple as correcting factual errors in the commission's work. Notably, not all those who received misconduct notices were required to provide such responses.
Among those named by Webb were senior officials, including the Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Solicitor-General, and the manager of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
Rockliff asserted that none of the current officeholders in these positions had received misconduct notices.
Integrity Commissioner chief commissioner Greg Melick clarified that their responses were about factual corrections, not procedural fairness.
The Commissioner for Children and Young People, Leanne McLean, stated she was not served with section 18 notices, and no adverse findings were made against her.
Solicitor-General Sarah Kay rejected the allegations made against her and her office as baseless, while former acting executive director Jacqui Allen, who was also named, denied any misconduct notice and called for a correction and apology from Meg Webb.
“Ms Webb's statements, made under parliamentary privilege but published on her website and in various media outlets, insofar as my name has been raised, are incorrect,” Ms Allen said.
“In the circumstances I think [it] appropriate that she apologises and formally corrects Hansard.”