This statement has been provided to Tasmanian Times on the condition that the source remains anonymous. They are known to the Editor of TT, who is a former Tasmanian Greens member.
During the 2014 state election campaign, I agreed to do some letterboxing for the Greens.
I received a message one day that the flyers and map were ready for the area I’d agreed to do. I went in to the Greens campaign office to pick them up. It was a weeknight, about 8pm, late February.
When I got there the door was locked. There were two girls inside and they both looked upset. I said through the glass I was there to pick up some flyers. They let me in and locked the door again.
The younger one, late teams, let’s call her Imogen (not real name), was holding back tears. She was being comforted by a slightly older girl, let’s call her Chloe.
Chloe pointed at the piles of flyers and went through them until I found my allocation.
It was awkward in there. I asked Chloe quietly what was going on, if there was something I could help with. The following conversation took place.
Chloe: You wouldn’t believe, David O’Byrne and Scott Bacon were just in here.
Me: What?
Chloe: Yeah. We were just doing our stuff. Imogen was calling people about the flyers. I was sorting out maps. Anyway they were walking past, down Elizabeth St. They saw us in here. They started calling out ‘hello little greenies in the Green Shop’ and leering at us through the window.
We ignored them. Then they tried the door, and it wasn’t locked at that stage, and they came in. That was … we didn’t expect it.
Anyway they were really drunk. They could barely walk. They were totally out of it.
O’Byrne said to Imogen, and he made it sound so sleazy, ‘Maybe you and I should work on some Labor-Greens relations, hey.’
I said ‘Leave her alone. You guys have to go. Seriously, you should not be in here.’
And then he said to me, ‘Well you’re a bit tight aren’t you, maybe you need some Labor policy in you as well sweetie.’
I said ‘You can’t talk to us like that. Get out now or I’m calling someone. I’m serious.’
Scott Bacon had been grinning through all but he seemed to realise it was turning bad and pretty much dragged O’Byrne out.
I shut the door and locked it. As they walked off O’Byrne said over his shoulder, loudly so we could hear it, ‘Well Bryan said screw the Greens; at least I tried.’
Me: Far out. What the hell.
Chloe: Yeah. Totally unexpected. They were so off their faces. And so creepy. And after they’d gone we were shaking you know. Really wound up. It was only just before you got here. A few minutes ago.
She assured me that they were going to be okay, and were about to call it a night to go home anyway. And if they could, avoid doing evenings in the campaign office any more.
I don’t remember speaking specifically about the issue again. I was at the election night event at the Yacht Club in Sandy Bay. Both the girls were there. I talked a bit around the issue with Chloe.
From memory she said something like ‘There was so much work to do, everything was a bit of a blur. So you didn’t want to dwell on anything that would get you bogged down.”
I really didn’t hear anything directly from Imogen on either the night it happened or afterwards.
On the night in question I had no reason to doubt anything Chloe told me. I still don’t. The atmosphere in the office that night was just so charged with their emotion, I remember it very clearly. It’s stayed with me.
