9am: Tasmania in turmoil as Bartlett quits
The Tasmanian Premier has confirmed her predecessor David Bartlett is set to quit cabinet, plunging the state’s minority government into a deeper crisis.
The government will have lost two senior ministers in a week, as it prepares to deal with the state’s biggest financial challenge in 20 years.
The Premier Lara Giddings has confirmed the move.
He had planned to quit parliament in the next few months and did not want to force another reshuffle later in the year.
Mr Bartlett is due to hold a media conference this morning.
Ms Giddings is reducing cabinet from nine members to eight after Lin Thorp lost her seat on the weekend.
Mr Bartlett has one of cabinet’s lightest workloads and was under pressure to take on more portfolios.
7am: ABC Radio is reporting that former Premier David Bartlett will quit Parliament today.
Yesterday:
Step up or get out, former Tasmanian premier told
Former Tasmanian premier David Bartlett is under pressure to take on more ministerial duties or get out of Parliament, after the loss of senior Labor minister Lin Thorp in the weekend upper house election.
The former Minister for Children’s defeat in Rumney has prompted the third cabinet reshuffle since December.
Mr Bartlett stayed on the front bench after stepping aside as Premier in January to spend more time with his young family.
He holds the portfolios of Attorney General and Justice, a light load compared to other senior Labor MPs.
The Opposition’s Jeremy Rockliff says Mr Bartlett must be given more responsibility.
• Sue Neales, Mercury:
…
Mr Bartlett would not discuss his future late last night when contacted by the Mercury.
But Labor insiders claim the 43-year-old MP has wanted to pursue other career opportunities, most likely in the IT sector outside Tasmania, for several months now.
Mr Bartlett believed that if he remained in Parliament too long, his chances of being offered an influential job in the private sector, leveraged on his 30 months as Tasmania’s change-agent premier, would dissipate.
But he was also keen to avoid forcing a further unwanted Cabinet reshuffle on Ms Giddings later in the year by announcing his decision to step down from Cabinet today and from Parliament shortly.
Mr Bartlett’s departure will force a re-count and redistribution of his votes from the March 2010 state election in the Hobart seat of Denison.
Dumped Labor ministers Lisa Singh and Graeme Sturges are next in line to get his spot, assuming the majority of Mr Bartlett’s votes remain loyal to Labor candidates.
But with Ms Singh already elected to the federal Senate for Labor in July, and Mr Sturges understood to be unavailable to return to parliament, it is likely Labor’s fifth candidate, Madeleine Ogilvie, may slip into parliament.
