Transcript of media conference with Labor Leader Dean Winter and Shadow Ministers Ella Haddad and Josh Willie, Hobart waterfront, 16 April 2024.
Dean Winter
In consultation with my colleagues, today I’m announcing a very big reshuffle of Labor’s Shadow Ministerial portfolio responsibilities. We’re doing that because we understand Labor has to change. We have to make sure that Tasmanians understand exactly what we stand for. We stand for jobs, opportunities, we stand for jobs that are well paid, that are safe and secure. And in order for us to prosecute, that we need the best possible team behind us.
Having just lost our fourth election in a row, it’s clear that we need to change some things. And so this reshuffle represents very significant change. In fact, almost all the portfolios have changed. We need to do our best to reconnect with regional Tasmania to focus on jobs and the economy and holding this government to account.
The approach that I’ve taken with this reshuffle means that we are in the best position to firstly hold the government to account in this new Parliament and the new Parliament let’s be honest is going to be very challenging to govern in for the Liberals. But it’s also going to be important that we hold the government to account through committees, through Parliamentary question time, and everything that that entails.
So I’m looking forward to working with our team to make sure that we’re holding the government to account but then offering real solutions to help Tasmania to tilt so and then offering. Let me say that again.
Firstly, we need to hold the government to account. But then secondly, we need to make sure we’re offering an alternative for Tasmania that makes sense, that’s viable, and can work for Tasmanians into the future.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
As you say, enormous reshuffle. D you expect it’ll take a little while for people to get up to speed with their new portfolios?
Dean Winter
The best time to do a reshuffle like this is early on in the term but we haven’t even returned to Parliament. But it’s an opportunity for us to give a different people a different opportunity to learn more about different portfolios and also get our new member involved: Meg Brown, I’ve given her the transport portfolio. First off I really want to see her focusing on the public transport failures of this government, particularly in the electorate of Franklin and Clark in the south. This is where the issue has been so so prevalent and really had an impact on working people.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Was there a mood amongst the Caucus to have an enormous shake up like this?
Dean Winter
We understand we’ve lost four elections in a row. And so Labor has to change. We have to embrace change, and all of us need to get across new portfolios. I think we’ve done a really good job of holding the government to account during the last term of government. But obviously our election result shows that Tasmanians weren’t willing to trust us as a new government. So we will continue to hold the government to account but we’ll make sure we’ve got a vision that Tasmanians can get behind and support at the next election.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Do you think it is positive to put new faces on things as well? Just, I guess, so Labor has a different look.
Dean Winter
I don’t expect that our policies are going to change enormously. But every new Shadow Minister will bring a different take to every portfolio. The messages that I gave in the Energy portfolio will be very different to the messages that Janie Finlay will bring, she’ll bring a different approach, a different focus to that portfolio demo. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with that.
Journalist – Lucy MacDonald
Why did you give up Energy? Obviously, it’s a huge part –
Dean Winter
It was pretty hard. I think all of us have accepted that we need to change. And for me, losing portfolios, like Energy and Racing are very difficult. But I understand that we need to change, we need to get a different focus, a different approach from different members. We also need to build the capacity within our team. We need to build capacity so we’ve got a greater understanding across a broader range of portfolios. I haven’t had a lot to do with the Tourism portfolio in the past. I’m really looking forward to getting to know that industry, Hospitality industry, across those portfolios.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Energy has been strong point for you guys in recent years, obviously, with enormous price rises from the government. Is there a lot of pressure on Janie to carry the mantle?
Dean Winter
A lot of the energy focus is on the north. So Bell Bay, we’ve got a proposed hydrogen hub there that there simply isn’t enough power to focus on. That’s why I asked Janie Finlay to take that portfolio. I think our energy future is a huge opportunity for Tasmania. But we need to get more energy into the grid so that we can do things like Abel Energy’s massive hydrogen play at Bell Bay, it needs more power. And I think having someone like Janie Finlay, who’s got an enormous amount of energy herself, in the energy portfolio is a great move.
Journalist – Elliott
And partnering that with Parks, Environment and Climate Change, is that [inaudible]?
Dean Winter
Well, for example, huge proposals like the Whaleback Ridge proposal in the northwest, goes across that Parks portfolio as well as Energy. Having someone like Janie Finlay fighting for proposals and developments like that that are going to power our economy into the future, I think is a really good move.
Journalist – Elliott
The Liberals copped some flak for some of their portfolios appearing to disappear, they say they’re streamlining them actually into other ones. I noticed here that you’ve got Climate Change listed as part of a portfolio. So you’ve obviously not taken that same approach?
Dean Winter
Well, I think industries want to be respected. And I think there are areas of focus that everyone needs. I think climate change is a huge issue. We are in a climate emergency. And so we need to make sure we’ve got a Tasmanian focus on climate change as an issue that’s going to affect our coastlines, affect our environment, but also offer us an opportunity in renewable energy to power our economy going forward.
Science and technology is something I’m really passionate about. I’m a former CEO of Tas ICT. And I was really disappointed to see the government drop that. I think science and technology offers us an ability to take our traditional industries to make them smarter, leaner, more efficient going forward and employ more Tasmanians in well paid, safe and secure jobs.
Journalist – David Killick
You’ve got a Shadow Minister for Integrity. What is the focus of that role?
Dean Winter
Arguably our strongest Parliamentary performer has been Rebecca White for a long period of time now. Her work in committees and in the Parliament has been extraordinary. I know that she will do an excellent job of holding this government to account as Shadow Attorney-General, but also in that Integrity portfolio.
We have seen this government fail time after time when it comes to integrity. The reason that Jeremy Rockcliff’s last government fell apart isn’t because of John or Lara. It’s because of his performance, his performance on integrity and transparency. We need to keep holding him to account on those issues. That’s what Tasmanians expect us to do. And having someone like Rebecca White in that Attorney General and Integrity space means that they will be held to account every single day.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
The two people behind you received pretty big promotions as well. Are you excited for the work that they can do?
Dean Winter
So our whole team has got an enormous workload. One of the problems with only winning 10 seats is that we need to share an enormous workload across only 13 members. So what we what we’re doing here is giving everyone a pretty fair workload, even bringing Meg Brown into the Shadow Cabinet first time into that important Transport portfolio.
I know that Ella is somebody who loves to get her teeth into a big portfolio as she has through Housing and Attorney-General. She’ll do a great job in Health. And Josh Willie, particularly in his performances in the Public Accounts Committee, I think showed that he had a real thirst for information and a real focus on finance. And I think that’s why he’ll do a great job Shadow Treasurer.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Josh has been a strong performer as he held the Education portfolio because he was a former teacher. Was there any temptation to keep him there?
Dean Winter
There was temptation to keep, to give, for a lot of different things, and it’s a matter of trying to find the right balance within our entire team. What this does mean though, is that by having a former Shadow Education Minister and a teacher now in our Shadow Cabinet, it means that Sarah Lovell is going to have someone to go to. And the same thing for Ella Haddad. Having a former nurse and a former Shadow Health Minister in our team means that she’s got someone to go to and work with as we engage with stakeholders and make sure we’re holding the government to account.
Journalist – Adam Langenberg
Is this huge shake up a reflection that your approach wasn’t resonating with Tasmania? And so you need to completely change it up, or was it something different to that?
Dean Winter
We’ve lost four elections in a row, we need to change, we need to embrace change. We need to work hard to get across these portfolios and be ready to hold the government to account when Parliament returns.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
But the degree of shake up kind of indicates the degree of failure doesn’t it?
Dean Winter
We’ve lost four elections in a row. Our primary vote is at 29%. We know that Tasmanians are relying on us to provide a really strong alternative and I think this is the best lineup to do that.
Journalist – Elliott
What will you be doing to make sure people are prepared to manage their portfolios? Have they locked in briefings already? Would you encourage groups to approach them for briefings?
Dean Winter
All of our team will be engaging with relevant stakeholders, including myself. I’ve got a lot to learn in my new portfolios the same as everyone else does. And I’m looking forward to engaging with a different set of stakeholders. I’m looking forward to not saying ‘Tasmanian prices and for Tasmanian power’ too many more times, looking forward to someone else potentially saying that.
Journalist – Adam Langenberg
You said everyone’s got a huge workload. The Shadow Cabinet is the same size as the actual Cabinet. Despite the increase in the size of Parliament is that still too much work for 12?
Dean Winter
Any team works across. It’s not just the portfolio. It’s also things like Parliamentary Secretaries, which I noticed the government has got. We haven’t got as big a team. We would like to have a larger team, of course, but we need to share the workload as best we can. And I think that’s what the lineup does.
Journalist – Elliott
Obviously, you were very passionate about the Attorney-General role. Was it sad to give that up?
Ella Haddad
I’m passionate about lots of policy areas. And I’m very supportive of us having a whole scale review of where portfolios sit amongst the Labor team. I used to work in the Health Department. In the first year of this Liberal government taking power I saw $750 million taken out of the health budget, the next year it was 450 million.
Here we are, 10 years later, with Tasmanians living in a state with the worst health system in the country. We’ve got the worst ambulance waiting times, we’ve got significant wait times for elective surgery. This is a portfolio that I’m very passionate about, even at the local member level, our offices hear every day from people suffering in the health system waiting for the vital health services that they need. And I for one am very excited about getting my teeth stuck into this portfolio.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Do you think it matters that the Shadow Attorney-General doesn’t have a legal background?
Ella Haddad
No, it’s not uncommon for Shadow Attorneys not necessarily to have a legal background. But Rebecca is someone that I worked very, very closely with. As a former Leader I feel very proud that she will be taking on those portfolios and she was deeply involved with the integrity policy and the justice policy that we put forward at the last election.
Journalist – Lucy MacDonald
I think during the election we heard a lot from Labor that one of the main concerns was health. How do you convince people that you guys can actually change things in that area?
Ella Haddad
It’s a great question. There’s no doubt that Tasmanians are sick of hearing the same old excuses from the Liberal Party. And people are right to feel a little bit cynical about politics generally when politicians stand here and say that we’ve got all the answers. I know that what my job will be now is talking to people who are suffering in the health system: patients themselves, people waiting for health services, as well as talking to workers and other stakeholders in the health system to find those real structural areas for change that we know can make a significant difference.
Things like investing in preventative health, to actually eventually stem the flow of acute health needs. Things like making sure there’s more access to community place-based health care, where people can get primary care where they live, rather than having to travel to cities, and wait in overcrowded emergency rooms. There are some immediate things that can be done to fix the health system. But there is no doubt that there needs to be systemic widespread change as well.
Journalist – Adam Langenberg
There’s a huge workload, I know there was on Attorney-General as well. Was there any trepidation about taking that on? Or was that something you really get to get into?
Ella Haddad
Like I said, I am very hungry for a new challenge and a new experience and I have seen the damage that the Liberal government has done in 10 years of mismanaging the health system. And that Tasmanians are really suffering as a result of that. And I’ll be doing everything I can to work very hard for the Labor Party to put forward alternative solutions for Tasmania in the Health portfolio.
Josh Willie
It’s great to join Opposition Leader Dean Winter and my colleague Ella Haddad, who is also a colleague for the electorate of Clark, today, with this significant reshuffle. We have lost four elections in a row. And whilst we are very reflective about that result, there are many challenges ahead. And this is a challenge that I will take head on. We acknowledge we can’t keep doing the same thing and get a different result. This is a significant shake up and I think a reset is really healthy.
Journalist – Adam Langenberg
Will Labor’s approach to debt and deficits change under your Shadow Treasury? Shane bemoaned that big deficits are a bad thing. Traditionally, Labor is more of the view that they’re okay as long as you’re spending on the right priorities. Will that be your approach going forward?
Josh Willie
My approach and my job is pretty simple for a very complex portfolio. And that is to help Tasmanians understand that this Liberal government are not good economic managers. There is a bleak forecast for the economy moving forward. Our state’s finances are in the worst shape they have ever been. We’ve got record deficits, we’ve got record debt, and we’ve got nothing to show for it. Tasmanians are not getting the public services they deserve.
So my job is to help Tasmanians understand that. We’ve got Tasmanians leaving in droves for better opportunities elsewhere. This is a great state and I love living here and I’m very proud of it. And I want to help Labor get back to its best where we’re delivering jobs, we’re growing the economy.
A lot of the significant reforms over the last 25 years are Labor reforms. Things like the irrigation scheme, the Spirits. And if you go back even further, the hydro-electric scheme has set our economy up. That’s where I want to see Labor get to again, where we’re delivering jobs and opportunity for Tasmanians, we’re delivering the essential services they need. I think many Tasmanians understand that over the 10 years of this Liberal government, everything’s going backwards.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Will you be preparing an alternative budget?
Josh Willie
Look, I think no Opposition across the country, whether they’re Liberal or Labor, deliver an alternative budget, and it is a distraction. It’s a distraction from a government that is desperate to avoid scrutiny on their economic management. The state’s finances in the budget are in the worst shape that have ever been. And I will pursue the Liberal government over that.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Peter Gutwein used to do it, the Greens do it every year, surely Labor with it’s increased numbers can –
Josh Willie
I disagree that Peter Gutwein did it. He had a flimsy document from Opposition that was not an alternative budget. It is a distraction from a government that is failing across many economic fronts. I am a person that is very resilient, I’m tenacious and I will pursue the Liberal government. That is our role in this part of the cycle, to hold the government to account for all of the things that they have promised. They’ve promised a number of huge spends. We have a budget that is in disrepair, and it’s up to them to explain how we move forward. And I’ll make sure they will.
Journalist – Adam Langenberg
Education has been most of your life whether as a teacher or Shadow Education minister. Is there a sadness to leaving that behind?
Josh Willie
Education is one of my passions, and I want to see the state do better when it comes to education. I think it is one of the biggest levers we can pull economically too to improve the lives of all Tasmanians. And I’ll maintain a key interest in that portfolio and assist Sarah Lovell when I’m needed to.
Journalist – unidentified
Do you know what makes Sarah Lovell well suited to taking on that portfolio?
Josh Willie
I’ve worked with Sarah for many years now. And one of Sarah’s greatest assets is that she is a great people person. She’s very consultative and she will get good people around her and make good decisions. And I’m very confident in her ability
Tasmanian Times
The JLN-Rockcliff deal includes a promise for an independent review of the state’s finances. So firstly, do you think that that might be useful or it’s just going to be smoke? And if you think it’s going to be useful in what sort of time-frame would you hope that that would be completed?
Josh Willie
Look, I think we need to pursue the government through the public the forum of Parliament. We need to do that well to help Tasmanians understand that this government is anything but good economic managers. I think the Liberal Party brand across the country has been trashed when it comes to economic management. We’ve seen it at a federal level and other states where they have kicked the can down the road, have avoided hard decisions and the budget is in disrepair, and Tasmania is no different. We need to make sure that this government is making the decisions that are in the best interests of Tasmania, that they’re not making decisions for political expediency, and I will pursue them over any of those sorts of decisions.
Dean Winter
Ben Yole should not be racing. He shouldn’t have been racing since December last year. This has been allowed to happen under Felix Ellis’s watch. And now Jane Howlett, who’s returning to the portfolio. She put out a release over the weekend, which did not mention the Office of Racing Integrity or the Director of Racing. It’s actually their job to rob these people out of the industry. It’s not Tasracing’s job to do it.
Tasracing is standing up today to do what the Office of Racing Integrity and the Minister for Racing will not do. And it’s to finally stamp them out of this industry. People who’ve been found to have breached animal welfare controls, who have been found to have race fixed and team driven, should not be in our industry. Their presence in the industry detracts from the integrity of it and from every other participant who’s doing the right thing.
The vast majority of participants in Tasmanian racing are doing the right thing and they have been brought down by Ben Yole and Minister Howlett. Back in Parliament when she was the Minister before, I asked her years ago: ‘did she think it’s a good thing that Ben Yole had the entire field racing?’ And she refused to say that was a bad thing. She was there at the start of this.
She was the Minister who oversaw the build up of Ben Yole runners right across the industry, the takeover of the industry, and she did nothing. Now she’s been put back into this portfolio as a recycled Minister, who may well be under investigation by the Integrity Commission herself. And she’s already doing nothing.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
Does it pass the sniff test that this has been coming on 15 months since the initial allegations came out? Still, nothing’s really been done by the government agencies and now six months since this report.
Dean Winter
Well, ask yourself what has happened in the last 12 months since the horrendous allegations were aired on Tasmanians’ TVs? Nothing. We had Madeleine Ogilvie who said that Tasmanian racing had never been in better shape, then she was sacked. You had Minister Ellis who got this report which showed massive breaches of animal welfare, and then let them keep racing.
And now they’ve recycled Jane Howlett, possibly the worst of all of them, who is already doing nothing and committed to doing nothing about these massive animal welfare breaches. It stinks. We need to have a Tasmanian Government that cares about racing, is prepared to hold these people to account.
Journalist – Adam Langenberg
Jeremy Rockliff put the broom through his office after his election win. Will you do the same? With you in the Leader’s role will you be having a clean out of the Labor Office?
Dean Winter
We’ll keep – a lot of people have already moved on. We’ll keep quite a lot of the staff. There will be changes as there are in the Ministerial portfolios, but I won’t make any further comment than that.
Journalist – Josh Duggan
The Greens are bemoaning the delays in the report back to Parliament about abattoirs Is it disappointing that we haven’t heard much from the committee that was that was made to report back to Parliament actions that abattoirs could take?
Dean Winter
Well, everything’s been held up by this election. We got we got an election that was held more than a year early to try and find certain and stability in Jeremy Rockliff is instead got more instability and more chaos. Things like CCTV within abattoirs, things like the new racing regulations, which should have been already been debated, the legislation through, should already be through the House and that was what was promised the industry, haven’t happened. We don’t actually have a government that’s able to govern at the moment.
We need to get back to Parliament. I think Tasmanians should be disappointed that we’ve got a Parliament that won’t actually sit until May. That’ll be five months. But all this follows on from the chaos of the last sitting day in December where the government returned to Parliament and then didn’t have anything for us to do.
If Jeremy Rockliff wants this Parliament to last its full term, he needs to do a better job of governing. He can’t blame other people like John and Lara, he can’t blame the crossbench or the Opposition. He needs to do a better job of governing.
| Member
|
Portfolios |
| Dean Winter | Leader
Trade and Major Investment Tourism and Hospitality Jobs, Workplace Relations and Safety |
| Anita Dow | Deputy Leader
Infrastructure TAFE, Skills and Training Regional Development Local Government Small Business |
| Shane Broad | Leader of Opposition Business
Housing Planning Building and Construction Consumer Affairs Resources |
| Meg Brown | Opposition Whip
Transport Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence |
| Jen Butler | Police, Fire and Emergency Management
Corrections and Rehabilitation Veteran’s Affairs |
| Luke Edmunds | Finance
Racing Sports and Events |
| Janie Finlay | Energy and Renewables
Parks, Environment and Climate Change Primary Industries and Water Science and Technology |
| Ella Haddad | Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
Multicultural Affairs Disability Equality |
| Sarah Lovell | Leader of Opposition Business in the Legislative Council
Education and Early Years |
| Michelle O’Byrne | Economic Development
Children and Youth Community Services Women Heritage and Arts |
| Rebecca White | Attorney General
Justice Integrity |
| Josh Willie | Treasury
Cost of Living Aboriginal Affairs |
| Craig Farrell | President of the Legislative Council |
TASMANIAN LIBERALS: New Rockliff Cabinet.
