Cassy O’Connor

We are two days out from the Tasmanian election. And still Tasmanian voters do not know what casino pokies tax rate the Premier Peter Gutwein has negotiated with the Federal Group. And they should know, because that is potentially hundreds of millions of dollars that won’t be going into hospitals, schools, new homes and community services. And as for Labor, what we know is that they secretly signed an MOU with the pokies lobby. And of course, they’ve backed in the new gambling arrangement and poker machines in pubs and clubs along with the Liberals. Secrecy continues to be a hallmark of both the major parties going into this election. And if you want just one local example, we’ve got about a dozen people who live up along the Southern Outlet, who are having their homes threatened with demolition for a fifth lane. And no part of government is telling them what’s actually happening. That is emblematic of the way the Liberals have run this place for the past seven years. It’s emblematic of their contempt for honesty and transparency. There is no greater example in this campaign than the Premier’s lies and refusal to tell Tasmanians what casino pokies tax rate he’s negotiated with the Liberals’ major donor Federal Group.

The donations reform that the premier announced before he called the election is just smoke and mirrors. We know that millions of dollars went into the Liberal and Labor parties before the election was called. And now there’s no transparency about the money that is funding their campaigns. We’ve been completely transparent. We put up our donations over $1500 in real time, we’re really honest about the fact that our fundraising has raised about $130-140,000. And that’s come from small donors. We are transparent. We can’t be bought by the corporations that are funding the Liberal and Labor parties while they rob Tasmanians blind by paying some of the lowest royalties and license fees in the country.

Journalist – Sean McComish

Can we really be expected to believe that, since the election was called, the only political donation that the Liberal Party has received over $5,000 is just one donation?

Cassy O’Connor

It’s incredible, isn’t it? The Liberals want us to believe that all they’ve got so far in donations this election is $5,000. Well, it’s probably because before the election was called millions of dollars were rolling into the Liberal Party coffers. According to the Australian Electoral Commission, between 7 and a half and $8 million, mostly from corporations and vested interests, has gone into Liberal Party coffers since the 2018 state election. And as we know, that money isn’t donated out of the goodness of corporations’ hearts, it’s donated because there’s an expectation that there’ll be a payback should the liberals win majority government.

Journalist – Bob Burton

At his media conference this morning the Premier said this was the most transparent election Tasmania’s ever had. What’s your response?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, they’re transparent all right, we can see straight through them. They’re trying to hide the sources of the vast, vast bulk of the money that’s coming to Liberal Party coffers. It’s coming in from big gambling, big logging, mining, from developers, and it’s being hidden from the Tasmanian people. And instead, they’re being given smoke and mirrors over donations to the Liberal Party. Of course, it’s transparent. We can see straight through them.

Journalist – unidentified

The Premier said this morning, that Federal Group group loses under the changes that they proposed. That’s a plausible scenario, isn’t it? They’re obviously losing (inaudible), and it’s been a tax arrangement that doesn’t actually work in their flavor?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, it’s a bit a bit rich to say the Federal Group will be losers. They’ve been sucking the life out of our communities, and the money out of poor people’s pockets, for about 40 years. We know that they’ve tried to stitch up a very favourable tax deal for the new arrangements. And we can be absolutely sure, because of the history in this place, and how captured the Liberal and Labor parties are by the Federal Group, that whatever happens under the new arrangements the Farrell family will be just fine. As we know, they’re estimated to be worth around $750 million. And that money has come out of the pockets of some of our poorest people. We know that. The Federal Group has been in secret negotiations with the Liberal Party over the casino pokies tax rate. We know that the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, which represents the Federal Group has signed a secret MOU with the Labor Party. The Federal group is doing what it’s always done. And that is corrupting our democracy at the expense of the Tasmanian people.

Journalist – Laura Beavis

The ABC covered a story this morning, revealing by an RTI that the EPA Director Wes Ford actually consulted with Tassal all about questions from the ABC about a salmon mortality event saying that, assuring them he had provided the ABC a fully pertinent response to that. And what does that tell you about I suppose how the regulatory agencies in Tasmania operate with the salmon industry?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, the regulatory agencies are hand in glove with big salmon. And that’s because they’re required to do so by the Liberals. The Liberals issue a statement to the EPA board which makes it very clear they have to put affluence and productivity for all industries before the environment. So the Liberals have failed to protect the environment and they will continue to fail to protect the environment while they direct the EPA, which sits under the minister, to put industry needs before the environment.

Journalist – Laura Beavis

Is that another instance of the lack of transparency in Tasmania?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, the EPA and the government are actually opaque when it comes to big salmon expansions. We know there’s a secret committee that’s been meeting, carving Tasmania’s marine waterways. We know that there’s a report which is finished and is waiting to be handed down after the election. So voters won’t know what the Liberals’ plans are with the salmon industry to carve up our beautiful marine waterways in the north and the east and the northwest. But we can be entirely sure that when you’ve got the Liberals, and Labor backing them, calling for a doubling again of the salmon industry, it will mean more fish pens on Tasmania’s waterways, and the community will have no say over the process, and scientists will be sidelined.

Journalist – Bob Burton

This Saturday there are two elections for Legislative Council seats. The voluntary disclosure regime the Premier announced doesn’t apply to these candidates. And even in the proposed changes to the electoral law, they’re proposing any disclosure requirements for the Legislative Council. Do you think there’s an integrity risk?

Cassy O’Connor

Absolutely. Every Tasmanian voter, whether they’re voting in Lower or Upper House elections, should know where the money is coming from for the candidates who are putting themselves forward. There should be absolute transparency about our funding sources, because when there isn’t it erodes trust in democracy. So who knows what will happen on the first of May, but we are certainly determined to get back into parliament and make sure we have got robust electoral laws in Tasmania, that treat candidates from either House of Tasmania’s Parliament equally and ensure that the people of Tasmania know who is funding candidates.

Tasmanian Times

The Australia-China relationship is increasingly tense. And Tasmania tends to get caught up in that when China for example takes trade sanctions and actions. So how important is it for Tasmania to diversify its export markets? And how would the Greens policy do that?

Cassy O’Connor

It is absolutely critical that we have a diversity of trading relationships. For too long under both Labor and Liberal administrations the politicians, premiers were tripping over themselves to suck up to China. And of course that makes us vulnerable should the Australian government for example say or do something that offends Xi Jinping’s regime. It’s so important for our exporters, our producers of fine produce, that we have lots of trading friends and that we have a diverse trading relationship because that diversity gives us strength, and it gives us protection from a punitive regime in China.

Journalist – Bob Burton

We’ve seen more allegations come to light about the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. What would the Greens do with that centre?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, of course, we would listen to the experts, we would put those young people first, we would ensure they’re given a better chance at a good life. And we would close down the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. The only reason that hellhole is still open is is because before the last state election, the Liberals told people in Deloraine and northern parts of Lyons that they’d keep it open. And the purpose of keeping it open was to shore up votes. It was about it wasn’t about the young people, it had political considerations behind it. And as a consequence, of course, we’ve had three more years of awfulness inside the Ashley Youth Detention Centre, young people being brutalised and too often leaving that place with not much hope in their hearts. And in fact, when you have a look at youth recidivism in Tasmania since 2014, it’s gone from 30% to just under 60%. And that tells us everything we need to know about the failure of the Ashley model. What we are proposing is that you close Ashley because you care about the well being of young people, and you construct two therapeutic facilities, north and south. And you make sure that when young people leave Ashley Youth Detention Centre, they’ve got life skills, and they’ve got hope for the future.

Journalist – Laura Beavis

Are you concerned that there appear to be profiles on various websites which have an image of Adam Brooks, although he claims it’s not him? Would the Greens like an explanation of that?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, here we go another Adam Brooks scandal. I think he really owes the people of Tasmania an explanation. The problem that he has is one of credibility. We’re talking here about a candidate who when he was in Parliament, and indeed a minister of the crown, told a bare-faced lie three times in Parliament to the people of Tasmania. So I think Tasmanians will struggle to accept whatever explanation Mr Brooks has. To have this number of alleged identities when you want to be elected to represent the people of Tasmania and be someone who’s considered trustworthy really does defy logic. And where is Peter Gutwein? Where is the Premier, who’s now got a disgraced former member who is in trouble with the police over ammunition storage, who now apparently has a series of fake identities? What does the premier think of that? Is he still endorsing Mr Brooks? It’s really difficult to know why the Premier continues to stand by Mr Brooks, who is a three times liar parliament, in trouble with the police over ammunition storage, now apparently has a series of fake identities. And I guess the only explanation is that the Premier and the Liberals thinks that Mr Brooks will go well for them in Braddon, and they want the resources that he can bring to this campaign. It’s incredibly cynical, it’s an insult to the people of Braddon, but it’s also an insult to Parliament, that someone of such apparently poor character would be promoted by the liberals as a suitable Member of Parliament.

Journalist – Laura Beavis

The Greens have released their plan for health in Tasmania, it’s presumably a fairly detailed plan, but can you just tell us briefly – given health is such a complex and intractable problem here – what are the key things the Greens would do to fix it?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, it’s an incredibly comprehensive plan. And we’ve talked very closely with the AMA, the ANMF, the Australian Paramedics Association in Tasmania, with community organisations and of course with members of the community who know that we cannot continue with the health system as it is. So the Greens believe we understand that structural change is required, and long term planning. The Liberals have failed to do both of those things and they’ve serially under-invested in health year on year since they came into office. So we would fix that situation. Our plan looks at capacity infrastructure planning for the Launceston General Hospital and the Royal Hobart Hospital. We also look at serious funding for the nurses, 730 new nursing positions over the next forward estimates period, fully supporting and backing the paramedics in their need for more paramedic staff and vehicles and formal centres. And of course, importantly, preventive health. We must be putting money into communities. We are supporting urgent care centres, everything that we can do to take the pressure off emergency departments, to take the pressure off hardworking clinical specialists in emergency and elsewhere in the hospital, must be done. These things are achievable because the Greens understand that we need to tax big corporations, make them pay their fair share in Tasmania, as they do in other states, so that we’ve got that money to invest in health.

Journalist – Adam Burton

The government’s released its climate change policy today. There’s extra support for electric vehicles? What do you make of that?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, I’ve got one answer to that. And that is forests. You cannot have a credible climate change strategy in Tasmania if you continue with logging beautiful, carbon rich forests. We have to keep our carbon stores in the ground and intact. We have to sequester carbon in soils and landscapes, we need to restore landscapes and put everything we can into making sure that we keep the carbon that we’ve already got. On top of that, we can do so much more with emissions reduction across every single sector. The Liberals have been skating on the regrowth of forests since the Forestry Agreement. But we are one of the highest carbon emitters on the planet. And we must be doing everything we can to support the transition: for agriculture, for transport, for waste, for manufacturing, for all of these sectors over the next 10 years to urgently reduce these emissions as well.

Journalist – unidentified

It’s two days out from an election and this is probably the only major environment policy we’ve heard from the Liberals except for the Tamar policy. Are they just trying to bury this stuff at the pointy end of the campaign?

Cassy O’Connor

Well do you do wonder if there hadn’t been a bit of pressure put on the Liberals by the Greens in our comprehensive suite of environment policies, whether they would have even bothered. They haven’t said anything about climate or the environment all the way through this campaign and yet they want to lead Tasmania for the next four years in a time of climate and biodiversity crisis. It just feels like they’re ticking a box on the environment, just as they’ve notionally tried to do over the past three years, but their track record on the environment is terrible. This is a government that supports the wholesale clear felling and burning of our beautiful native forests that is driving the exquisite swift parrot to extinction. The Liberals cannot be taken seriously on the environment. Their track record speaks for itself.

Tasmanian Times

Font PR has spent a couple of years running around buying up publications in Tasmania. Principle Brad Stansfield said – I think when he bought Tas Country- that ‘no just because I’m the former Chief of Staff to Will Hodgman that won’t affect our editorial line. But here we are; Font PR are doing the Liberal campaign for this election. Do we have a problem with media diversity in Tasmania and what can be done about it?

Cassy O’Connor

We certainly do have a problem with media diversity in Tasmania and across the country. And it still personally gives me a heavy heart to know that we’ve got a PR company, the director of which is a former Liberal spin doctor, who has so much responsibility for our excellent regional and smaller newspaper outlets. We need to encourage media diversity and a large part of that comes from the regulatory approach at a national level.