Calls grow for greater oversight

Adam Holmes | Examiner/Advocate | 7 February 2022  

AN INDEPENDENT upper house member will continue a push this year to have Tasmanian public health officials and ministers face parliamentary hearings to answer questions about the COVID response, fearing they face less scrutiny than in other states.

Labor last week made a similar call, outlining it would move for a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s planning and management of COVID entering the community from December 15.

Varying forms of parliamentary oversight exists in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT, including opportunities for members of parliament to question officials and gather documentation about how decisions are made.

Nelson MLC Meg Webb raised concerns after noticing Tasmania recommended a lower level of rapid antigen testing for school children compared with the mainland.

Ms Webb said the public should be able to see the specific public health reasoning about why the Tasmanian government decided to recommend that only symptomatic children be tested, rather than all being tested twice weekly as in other states.

The government’s view is that its regular press conferences, in combination with question time when Parliament returns in March, gives ample opportunity for health advice to be explained and questioned.

But Ms Webb said a parliamentary oversight committee would be able to compel complete answers from officials and ministers, whereas in press conferences there was no obligation to give all the information.

“It’s all well and good that press conferences are held where government and Public Health officials put information into the public domain, but that doesn’t provide the same transparency that a parliamentary process would provide,” she said.

At the moment, a joint standing committee is in place to scrutinise changes to legislation made by the government during the COVID emergency period, but Ms Webb said this only captures a “tiny” portion of the COVID response.

Her attempt in 2020 passed the Legislative Council, but was voted down by the government, with Premier Peter Gutwein citing three other levels of parliamentary scrutiny that were occurring. Two of these have since concluded.

Attorney-General Elise Archer said the government was not planning on supporting a parliamentary oversight committee.

“We’re due to go back to parliament first week of March and that’s not far away now. And the opposition has an opportunity to ask questions of government at that point,” she said.

Ms Archer said there was a need to avoid testing children with RATs “unnecessarily”.

See more of Meg’s recent media.