Under-siege Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has unloaded on Opposition Leader Dean Winter – accusing him of selfish and reckless behaviour, and of bullying the crossbench – after Winter successfully moved a no-confidence motion against him.
Rockliff won re-election with a minority government last year, but today’s motion has been backed by crossbench MPs.
Tasmanian Labor leader Dean Winter.Credit: AFR
The Labor opposition moved the motion in response to what it called budget mismanagement and plans to privatise state assets.
Responding to the motion in state parliament, Rockliff called Winter “a weak leader”.
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“I hand on heart, can say to you that I have fought more for vulnerable people in this place than the Labor Party could ever dream of, and particularly the person that resumes his seat, the leader of the opposition, who has demonstrated in the last 24 hours that you are not ready to govern, that you are a weak leader, that you are prepared to jeopardise Tasmania’s future and the stability of this parliament,” he said.
Earlier, Winter said the instability was Rockliff’s fault alone.“The debate is very important today,” he said.
“The broken promises are galling. But the situation the state arrives in goes back to one thing, and that’s the state of the Tasmanian budget. $1.7 billion worth of cash deficit this year, heading towards $11 billion of net debt, and a premier who won’t even admit there’s a problem.”
Rockliff mentioned in his reply the need to open the chequebook to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy in which six children died.
MPs are expected to vote on the motion this afternoon.
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