GREENS MP Kim Booth split with party colleagues and crossed the floor of State Parliament yesterday to vote against the sale of TOTE Tasmania.
Despite Mr Booth’s decision to side with the Liberal Party yesterday, the remaining Greens abandoned their election policy and stuck by their Labor partners to defeat a bid to repeal the TOTE sale Act.
“Parliament has made a decision which I believe is a wrong decision,” Mr Booth said. “Apparently I am the only member of the Tasmanian Greens who stands by the policy we took to the last election.”
The vote came just hours after a cross-party parliamentary committee report recommended the government-owned TOTE be retained.
But despite agreeing to the conclusions of the report on Monday, Labor members Brenton Best and Graeme Sturges overnight produced a dissenting opinion. Premier Lara Giddings said she was keen to quickly offload the betting agency, which is struggling and needs a $20 million capital injection.
“I will now certainly say to Treasury that they can proceed with the sale process and the sooner they can sell that asset the better,” she said.
She denied placing pressure on her party’s committee members, Best and Sturges, to reverse their view on the sale.
Liberal leader Will Hodgman said the decision showed the Labor-Green Government was unfit to rule.
“This government is completely fractured … we’re now seeing them put politics ahead of the state’s interest,” he said.
• What they said:
TOTE SALE DEBATE:
Time to Focus on Restructuring Racing Industry onto Viable Footing
Nick McKim MP
Greens Leader
&
Kim Booth MP
Greens Racing spokesperson
The Tasmanian Greens today confirmed that it was the majority view of the Party Room to not support moves to repeal the Tote Tasmania Sale Act 2009, saying that the changing circumstances surrounding the State’s financial situation forced a re-evaluation of government priorities.
Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said there were serious consideration given to concerns about the ongoing risk to the public purse by retaining public ownership of the struggling GBE, and whether it is appropriate for government to prioritise running a bookie industry over other key social priorities.
Greens Racing spokesperson, and Chair of the Parliamentary Committee inquiring into the sale of Tote, Kim Booth MP, voted in support of the Repeal Tote Sale Bill, consistent with the recommendations of the Committee’s majority report.
“The majority view in the Party Room was that governments should not be running a gaming entity, especially given the potential ongoing risk to the public purse in order to prop up Tote, when we have such dire funding needs across the community,” Mr McKim said.
“The Greens made a commitment to work to deliver good policy on behalf of all Tasmanians, rather than make decisions that would benefit the Greens, and this decision about repealing the sale of TOTE was one that was examined with serious deliberation by all Greens MPs against that threshold criteria.”
“The Greens MPs gave serious consideration to both the Tote Committee’s majority and dissenting reports, as well as undertakings made by the Premier earlier today to prioritise investing proceeds of any sale into cost of living initiatives, health and education infrastructure.”
“We note that social welfare organisations such as TasCOSS has recently added its voice to this debate by calling for the sale of Tote to assist in providing additional money for targeted injection to assist those doing it tough now.”
“I am relaxed about Mr Booth having a different point of view and him expressing that view publicly, as he has done today. The Greens do not seek to censor our MPs,” Mr McKim said.
“As Chair of the Committee I strongly supported the Committee’s original unanimous majority finding, that any sale is premature,” Mr Booth said.
“Unfortunately Labor chose to suppress information by insisting on In Camera evidence only, so Members of Parliament are not fully aware of all the facts.”
“Greens’ policy was to retain Tote in state hands and that remains my view, and I support the racing industry in their desire to become independent of public funds.”
“If Tote sells as a result of today’s vote then the Premier has to accept responsibility for the fact that the public will now be providing $27 million annually, for the next 20 years, which could have been avoided.”
“If it is inappropriate to own a bookie agency then it is grossly hypocritical to sell it and lose control.’
“Look at what a disaster the pokie deal has become with Labor and Liberal refusing to even regulate the most damaging and harmful effects, citing sovereign risk.”
“In my opinion, there is no doubt that this decision is premature,” Mr Booth said.
“The majority view of the Greens Party room was to prioritise facilitating delivery on our policy areas such as cost of living. There are times where any Party will discover that their policy positions can be in conflict, and for us this was one of those times,” Mr McKim said.
“The Party Room respects the work our Racing spokesperson Kim Booth has done on this vexed issue, and we believe his committee remains in the best position to undertake the necessary valuable work to assist in the restructuring of the racing industry so it can stand on its own two feet based on a sustainable business model,” Mr McKim concluded.
