Australian Greens leader Christine Milne
Australian Greens leader Christine Milne has attacked the management of a key plank of the Tasmanian forest peace deal, calling for a Senate inquiry.
A National Audit Office report into the Contractors Voluntary Exit Grants Scheme found $3.59 million was offered to 10 applicants, despite them failing to demonstrate full eligibility.
The exit packages, totalling $44.2 million, are a key part of the Tasmanian Forests Agreement, signed by the Prime Minister and Premier in August 2011.
``How is it possible that 10 of the 61 applicants were ineligible according to the criteria for eligibility, they couldn't prove they had contracts in native forest logging from which to be paid to exit, and yet they were still paid out?'' Ms Milne said.
She will formally call for a Senate inquiry into the matter when the Senate resumes on Monday.
The National Audit Office criticised the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for its implementation of the eligibility criteria for the scheme.
The report said that, in seven of the cases, this was due to Forestry Tasmania not providing a letter of support for individual applications to the department.
Forestry Tasmania said that in January 2012 it withdrew all letters of support due to an ``internal control matter''.
The audit report said the department subsequently asked for these letters to be re-issued, but Forestry Tasmania did not do this in all cases.
It said it needed to guarantee supply to the Tasmanian forestry industry under the intergovernmental agreement as well as meet its contractual commitments.
Ms Milne did not provide examples of wrongdoing but called on people in the industry to make their allegations public through the Senate inquiry.