Media Release: Where is Overdue Tatarka Review of Commission of Inquiry Legal Fees Paid for Public Servants?
Where is Overdue Tatarka Review of Commission of Inquiry Legal Fees Paid for Public Servants?
17 March 2025
Independent Member for Nelson Meg Webb today demanded the Rockliff Government provide an immediate status update on the independent Tatarka Review of the legal fees paid for current and former public servants during the course of the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.
“The appointment of the independent reviewer, Sam Tatarka, OAM, to undertake this important review was announced on 18 December 2023 due to community concern that public money may have been used to fund the legal fees of state servants against whom the Commission made findings,” Ms Webb said.
“Yet over a year later we are still waiting for its outcomes.
“I am now calling on the Attorney-General to inform Tasmanians immediately whether the Tatarka Review is finished, whether the government has received the independent reviewer’s report, and if so when did it receive that report?”
Ms Webb said when she asked in May last year the expected timeframe for the completion of the Tatarka Review, she was informed it was anticipated the review would be concluded “mid to late 2024”.
“The Parliament was subsequently informed in November last year the government anticipated receiving the review’s report in December. But since then, all we’ve heard is radio silence.
“How can it take so long to ascertain whether there are appropriate grounds to require any of those 26 recipients of public funded legal assistance, and who may have been subject to findings made by the Commission of Inquiry, to repay any of those taxpayer-funded legal fees?
“The Government has had months to volunteer an update in a transparent manner, but instead it appears to be hoping we have all forgotten about the matter of the 26 state servants who were granted publicly funded legal assistance during the Commission of Inquiry.”
