Rockliff digs a deeper hole

Premier Rockliff has admitted what everyone already knew – he was aware that Madeleine Ogilvie lied to Parliament and did nothing about it for six months.

The Premier has made a conditional apology and announced a review with no timeline. That’s not enough to make this matter go away.

In fact, it raises more questions than answers.

• The Premier needs to tell Tasmanians the date he was informed about Madeleine Ogilvie’s Supreme Court action.
• When he approved it; and
• Why he did nothing to uphold the Ministerial Code of Conduct and ask her to correct the record after she lied.

And notably, the Premier hasn’t addressed the elephant in the room.

Minister Howlett still has $300,000 worth of secret taxpayer funded legal fees that she refuses to explain to Tasmanians.

Madeleine Ogilvie resigned because she could not answer questions about her court case. By this logic, Minister Howlett should as well.

Why are the Premier’s standards different on these two matters?