Groucho Green flip-flops in the political breeze

At Labor’s state conference earlier this year, Labor confirmed they had no policies to work with other than their commitment to their socialist ideals.

Bryan Green certainly got the memo about having no policy platform, however he has got a bit confused on the socialism front.

It was Groucho Marx, not Karl Marx, who famously said “These are my principles and if you don’t like them… well I have others”. That quote absolutely sums up Labor’s daily flip-flopping on policy positions.

On October 2, ‘Groucho Green’ was promoting Hobart as an export port for woodchips while demanding the government rule out acquiring the Triabunna mill site:

“It is possible to just woodchip or chip residue in the bush and containerise those and export them in containers. They are options that are available to the Government, and they could easily be shipped from Hobart.” (Bryan Green, ABC radio news, 2/10/14).

However now the government has identified Macquarie Port as a viable option he refuses to support it. He publicly raised this as a better option than Triabunna and now criticises the Government for making that recommendation after consideration of two critical reports.

In Parliament on May 7 Green demanded that we give an “unequivocal guarantee” that we would deliver our election promises. Now he calls record spending on health and education “irresponsible and extravagant” and wants us to shelve them.

Most significantly, Labor, along with their allies the Greens and the Unions, campaigned for months against the pay freeze.

“I would like to put on the record again the Labor Party’s firm opposition to any such measure” (Rebecca White, Hansard, 17 September2014).

“People might want to run the argument that Labor has been opposed to the pay cuts. We’ve never said that.” (Bryan Green, ABC radio, 29/9/14)

In the seven months since Labor were turfed out of office by the Tasmanian people they have learnt nothing, other than developing a deceitful plan of saying one thing on one day, and the complete opposite on another.

Day after day, question time after question time, Labor’s strategy is to contradict their own previous positions and often to simply invent ridiculous accusations which Tasmanians can see right through.

Groucho Green needs to get his party in order, decide what their positions on important issues are, and stick with them.
Jeremy Rockliff, Deputy Premier