Tasmanian Times

Sue Neales,The Mercury

THE three original directors of the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation expected to earn only $20,000 each in directors’ fees annually, under the financial plans and company structure signed off by the State Government in 2003. David Diprose, a part owner of the TCC, claims there was also room in the company’s budget for each director to earn another $60,000 in consultancy and management fees. “But there was never any intention that any director could be paid more than $80,000 total from than the company a year; the Budget would not have worked otherwise,” Mr Diprose alleges. The TCC, which is a private company, is at the centre of a political furore. It was claimed in Parliament this week that instead of fulfilling its function as an accreditation body for the building industry, under a monopoly contract handed to them by the State Government, the TCC’s profits are being used as cash cow for Labor mates. The TCC is owned by former Tasmanian Labor health minister John White and a former Queensland Labor minister, Glen Milliner, as well as Mr Diprose.