Howlett’s integrity and competence brought into further question

As questions continue to mount about Minister Jane Howlett’s integrity and competence, Labor is calling on the Minister to explain why she was unaware that TasRacing had breached caretaker conventions, and didn’t investigate further, despite being the shareholder minister for the GBE.

Last week in Estimates, the Minister was asked if she had received any advice about whether TasRacing's inappropriate TasInsure communication was in breach of caretaker conventions.

Shockingly, despite new documents revealing the Secretary of DPAC confirmed the breach in January, the Minister didn’t seem to know anything about it and certainly hadn’t investigated it.

It was only after a break in proceedings that the Minister came back to correct the record, and revealed that she had been advised that DPAC wrote to TasRacing and said, “there may have been a breach”.

Even that correction wasn’t accurate. The DPAC Secretary made it clear that she considered “the commentary made by TasRacing to be a breach, inadvertent or otherwise, of the Guidelines on the Caretaker Conventions and the Operations of Government during the Caretaker period.”

Jane Howlett is the Minister for Racing. TasRacing is a Government Business Enterprise under her supervision, and she has been asked multiple questions about this issue in Parliament.

It is unbelievable that a Minister doesn’t know basic information about her portfolio.

With Ms Howlett also unable to answer basic questions about the $300,000 worth of secret, taxpayer funded legal fees she’s racked up, her position in Cabinet has become untenable.