What the Tasmanian Liberals will do:

Change the culture of the Tasmanian Government to improve its transparency to the public it serves, and its accountability for its actions.

A key measure of any society is how accountable and responsive its elected government is.

In over a decade of Labor, standards of governance have steadily declined.  We have seen ministers resign in disgrace and a multitude of reshuffles.  We have seen arrogance towards public institutions – especially the Parliament, and undue political pressures on apolitical public servants.

A Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to a range of measures to help bring standards back into government.

• A new and robust Code of Conduct for Ministers, and for ministerial staff;
• A sixty day deadline for Ministers to respond to written questions on notice;
• Protection for the Director of Public Prosecutions, so he cannot be removed from office without the agreement of both Houses of Parliament, the same as other senior statutory office-holders;
• A new Open Government Act, which includes a complete overhaul of the freedom of information regime so that information held by government departments is ‘pushed’ out into the public domain, rather than waiting for it to be ‘pulled’ from files and databases;
• Better and more frequent government performance reports, including financial reports every three months, coupled with regular information on the size of the public sector and reports on infrastructure spending;
• A regular sitting pattern for both Houses of Parliament, and an end to Labor’s pattern of ploughing legislation through.  There must be adequate opportunities for consultation with those affected, and for debate.