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Category: Hydro Energy / States and Territories / Electricity Energy and Utilities

Treasurer lashes out over leaking of Hydro Tasmania documents

Tuesday, 30 Aug 2016 09:20:13 | Richard Baines And Rosemary Bolger

Hydro Tasmania has been criticised over its management of dam levels. (ABC News: Richard Baines)

Tasmania's Treasurer has pushed the powerful committee examining the state's energy crisis to explain the leaking of confidential documents.

The State Government is fronting the inquiry for the first time after pulling out of an earlier scheduled appearance citing an escalation of the dispute between Hydro and Basslink.

In his opening remarks, Treasurer Peter Gutwein, one of Hydro Tasmania's shareholder ministers, raised concerns about document security.

He said information provided by Hydro to the committee had made its way "into the public domain, without it being released by the committee".

"The material in questions relates to information provided by Hydro to the committee," he said.

Energy crisis inquiry snapshot


Look back at what key players have told the inquiry probing what went wrong during Tasmania's energy crisis.

"Accordingly I would like advice from the committee on what actions have been taken, how you will ensure that such a breach does not occur again, importantly, that sensitive information provided to the committee is given appropriate protection."

Under legislation that establishes the Public Accounts Committee, leaking of documents can be considered a crime.

The committee's head, Ivan Dean, said it was a serious matter that was being dealt with.

"In relation to the issue of the documents that you referred to, the committee is working through that and the committee will share with you information in regard to that matter outside of this process in due course," Mr Dean said.

"It is a serious matter and I don't wish to discuss that further in a public session at all but the committee is working through that process.

"Accordingly I would like advice from the committee on what actions have been taken, how you will ensure that such a breach does not occur again, importantly that sensitive information provided to the committee is given appropriate protection."

Government accused of pressuring Hydro to sell power station

The inquiry was set up to examine the state's handling of the energy crisis caused by the unprecedented combination of low Hydro dams and the extended outage of the Basslink cable.

Labor's representative on the committee Scott Bacon has repeatedly clashed with the Treasurer during this morning's hearing.

Mr Bacon referred to Hydro Tasmania's advice to the Treasurer in 2014 that it did not expect to make enough profit to return a dividend to the Government for three years.

Despite that, the 2014 budget included a $75 million dividend from Hydro in 2017-18.

Mr Bacon accused the Government of pressuring Hydro Tasmania to sell the gas-fired Tamar Valley Power Station to deliver the dividend.

Mr Gutwein countered that Hydro Tasmania had long considered the power station unnecessary in order to meet the state's energy security.

Last year, the Government authorised Hydro to look for a buyer for the main turbine, but a potential sale is now off the table after it was used to help supply the state's electricity during the crisis.

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