Cassy O’Connor to Attempt Move to LegCo

Transcript of media conference with Cassy O’Connor MHA and Rosalie Woodruff MHA, Parliament Lawns, Hobart, 13 July 2023. The transcript starts from the third minute as the first three minutes O’Connor reads the issued statement that is published further down the page. 

Cassy O’Connor

* reads statement (see below)*

Journalist – John Hunt

This is a bit of a risk, you know giving up one seat to go into another. Tell us how you weighed that up and the reasoning and how you came to that decision?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, I think decent leaders just know when it’s the right time to go. And it’s the right time for the Greens. We do need renewal, we need renewal in the leadership and in the House of Assembly. So I’ve weighed it up. And it feels right. And I know I’m taking a risk in putting my hand up for the Legislative Council seat of Hobart. But we have an opportunity to have a Green elected to the Legislative Council. Our party rules are quite strict about making a pitch before you are pre-selected so I’m not going to say more than that.

Journalist – unidentified

How long have you been weighing up this decision? And what is it about the House of Assembly that’s making you think the Legislative Council is a better place.

Cassy O’Connor

Oh no, it’s not about it being a better place. The fact is every leader has their day. And it’s important to know when the day comes when you should step down as leader and I know it’s the right time. And also I know that Rosalie is going to be a terrific leader and we’ll have Vica Bayley in the House of Assembly. So I walk away feeling really good about that. But I also think there’s a chance here for us to increase our representation in Tasmania’s parliament. And more importantly, to for the first time have a Green elected to the Legislative Council.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

Is this a resignation or just a bit of a vacation?

Cassy O’Connor

This is my resignation as the Greens member for Clark and the leader of the Greens. I have written To Her Excellency, the Governor, I’ve let the Clerk of the House know. I’m going to take a break; for eight years all parts of my brain have been on sort of 24/7. It’s time. And I just I know having sat with Rose for the past eight years, in fact I’d have been lost without her and our team, I just know now is also the right time for Rosalie.

Journalist – John Hunt

So if you were to get back in the Upper House, would you consider going leader again?

Cassy O’Connor

No way. Are you serious? Every leader has their time.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

Just checking, if this is unsuccessful when you bid for Hobart, what are your career highlights?

Cassy O’Connor

Oh, well, if I had to pick one moment that I’m most proud of, it was my vote for the Tasmanian Forest Agreement. That vote in 2013 protected more than half a million hectares of some of our most beautiful forests, it turned Tasmania from a carbon emitter into a net carbon sink. It strengthened our brand and diversified our economy. And those forests while not fully protected because the Liberals won office in 2014, the loggers still aren’t in those forests. So when I look back over the past 15 years, it is that vote of which I’m the most proud, and which I think was the most significant.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

What is it about Hobart, the seat of Hobart, do you think it’s particularly ripe for the picking for the Greens?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, Hobart has always been quite a Green seat. It’s always or it has long elected, left-leaning and progressive independents, wonderful people like Rob Valentine, who has announced he won’t be standing again, I did ring Rob this morning to let him know what my plan was. And we had a lovely chat. But Hobart is a good seat for the Greens to campaign hard on. And I don’t know who the members will pre-select. But this is our best chance in a generation to win a seat in the Upper House. We’ve never had a Green in the Upper House before, we’ve now got four Liberal members, four Labor members in an Upper House of 15. So the old parties decide they want something bad to happen, you know, in the in the Upper House right now, that’s a problem. So we do need someone who’s trustworthy and true, will vote the right way, every time. And I hope to be that person

Journalist – John Hunt

Traditionally though the upper house has been seen, as you know, house of independents. Do you think now that that’s changed and there’s room for parties like yourself in the house?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, the Legislative Council has a majority of Liberal and Labor members now. We are seeing those old parties take a real foothold in a house that traditionally always elected independents. I think that makes it more pressing that we do have Green representation Tasmania’s Legislative Council.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

There’s been lots of speculation about an early election. Why now? Given there’s speculation that we could go at any minute, and how would the Greens perform without you?

Cassy O’Connor

Oh, the Greens are going to be great. Without me. That’s there’s no problem with that we’ve got the wonderful, Rosalie Woodruff, I might just start that again, because I should get the greens are going to be just fine.

Cassy O’Connor

The Greens are going to be great. We’ve got the awesome Rosalie Woodruff, who’s currently Acting Leader, but I’m sure will be the new Leader of the Greens. So we’ll have a forest champion, and a champion of the wild places in Vica Bayley in the seat of Clark, I think they’ll be a terrific combination. And you know, in politics, it’s really important to recognise that none of us are irreplaceable, you know, we all have our time and my time in the House of Assembly has come to an end.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

Is there a particular moment that led you to think that it was time?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, I knew that in this term of the parliament I’d have to make a decision. I have led the Greens to two elections. 2018 was incredibly difficult election, rivers of money from the gambling industry. In 2021 we were the only party contesting the election that got a swing to it. But I’m a realist. Now I’ve had two cracks at it. We need new leadership that can help us increase our numbers in the House of Assembly. And win back those northern seats. And I think Rose can do it.

Journalist – unidentified

Are there any major problems with the House of Assembly that has driven you away, for example, the party politics that continue to play out?

Cassy O’Connor

No. I love it in there. I love it.

Journalist – unidentified

What will you miss most about it?

Cassy O’Connor

Rosalie.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

You’ve been pretty strident on the stadium, it could well be an election about a stadium. Are you going to regret not being part of it?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, no, I know that Rosalie and Vica will be championing this for a better way for this island. We are strongly positioned against the stadium. That will continue. It is a disastrous proposition for our beautiful island to leave the state in massive debt. And it represents a political choice of the Liberal government to prioritise stadiums over building homes for Tasmanians.

Journalist – David Killick

At the end of your term that you announced today, do you feel like you have any unfinished business or regrets that you’re not sticking around to see some other things through?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, the one, the one thing I’d have liked to be here for was the delivery of the report of the Commission of Inquiry at the end of August. The Greens advocated so strongly for the rights and safety of children and the need for a Commission of Inquiry. I’d have liked to have been in the House when that report was handed down. But I absolutely know that the response to it from the Greens in Rosalie and Vica will be as strong as ever.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

I just have one more. People normally quit politics and try and run away as far as possible, you’re quitting already signalling that you want to return. What is it about politics that gives you that unfinished business to head upstairs and try and do?

Cassy O’Connor

In politics, you can achieve some amazing outcomes. You can negotiate, you can argue for a better way, you can work to fix legislation so it’s the best that it can be, you can set out a vision for the future. That has been one of the great privileges of this job, being able to give voice to Greens values, the aspirations of Greens voters and supporters across this beautiful island. And I’ll miss that, really miss that. So I’m going to have a break. Expressions of interest will be open for Hobart pre-selection. I’ll lodge an expression of interest and then I’m going to have a bit of a defrag and regenerate, and find out what it’s like to wake up in the morning without twenty things in my head that needs to be done or said. It’d be quite amazing to wake up tomorrow for the first time in eight years as leader without that feeling.

Journalist – unidentified

And how would you assess the current state of politics and what you’re walking away from?

Cassy O’Connor

The current state of politics is extremely interesting and full of possibilities. And if you have goodwill in that chamber and the capacity to negotiate, to compromise, sometimes this parliament can really work. And I think Tasmanians want it to work. They expect the people in this place to behave like grownups. We’re only halfway through a term. So while it’s a challenging parliament, particularly for the Premier and his team, it’s a parliament that’s workable. And I hope that everyone works hard to make it deliver good outcomes for the people of Tasmania. I know that Rosalie and Vica will be doing just that.

Journalist – unidentified

What do you think needs to be done for the Greens to win back northern seats?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, we need to continue to build momentum, give voice to those issues that really concern Tasmanians: housing, health, the state of the climate. Get out on the ground, have excellent candidates. I’ll be a 35 seat election, so we’ll be per-selecting, there are plenty of good people who want to build, put their hand up. So we just need to build on the momentum that we already have and harness the extraordinary energy and heart of our members.

Journalist – unidentified

You’ve been criticised by the likes of Kim Booth –

Cassy O’Connor

Whatever.

Journalist – unidentified

– did that play any part in this decision?

Cassy O’Connor

Who?

Journalist – unidentified

Kim Booth.

Cassy O’Connor

Who?

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

We might hear from Roaslie.

Rosalie Woodruff

It has been an extraordinary honour and a privilege to have been the parliamentary colleague of Cassy O’Connor. She is a great Greens leader, she has left an extraordinary legacy for this state. Her time as the first Greens female minister, Minister for Human Services, Community Development, Climate Change and Aboriginal Affairs for four years, from 2011 to 2014 was extraordinary in what she was able to achieve in what were difficult economic times.

She introduced Tasmania’s first working with vulnerable people legislation. She was responsible for the first assessment of Tasmania’s forest carbon values, critical work in a climate change era. She has stood with and spoken as a great champion for Aboriginal people, and has been a place for all people seeking justice.

The work she has done when she was the Housing Minister sets the standard that we see the government failing to achieve every day since they’ve been there for the past nine years. She made 9500 Tasmanians have cheaper power bills, have warmer houses and homes. Thanks to her she has turned around the situation for people who were able to access the NDIS when it first started in 2014.

So she leaves an enormous legacy and the Tasmanian Greens party are enormously grateful to Cassy, we honour her tenacious bravery, her strength, her fearless championing of wild places, lutruwita and its people. It’s awesome to think of her as a person in the Legislative Council, it is exciting to think of what we will achieve as as a party. So I feel really excited.

As the Acting Leader of the Tasmanian Greens, I am so excited to think about the future for our party. We have a really bright future. And we’re seeing that in people’s concerns, continually turning to the Greens increasingly because they understand that we are consistent, we’re true, we’re strong, and we deeply care about wild places, and social justice.

I think there’s a lot more I can say about Cassy. On a personal level, I will really miss having her in the chamber with me. We’ve had a lot of fun together. We’ve we’ve been smart and sassy together, we’ve really, you know, we’ve we’ve made everything that we can for to stand up for people for the things that we care about on behalf of the Tasmanians who elect us to do this work.

I’m really looking forward to Vica Bayley being the member for Clark. Vica is an incredibly talented person, a very high profile. He has earned his profile from the work that he did on the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement, head of The Wilderness Society. So he is a gentle, team-player person who I’m really excited about working with. So, you know, I’ll say more about that when the recount is completed. There will be a portfolio allocation, obviously, Vica and I will make a formal determination about the leadership. Obviously, I’m putting my hand up for that job.

I’m very excited and sad at the same time. It’s a special day. But today is a great day, it’s a new chapter for the Tasmanian Greens. And Cassy is not going anywhere. And it says so much about her as a person that she is putting her hand up for the seat of Hobart. I think it says everything about her commitment to Green values and she’s got unfinished business. We all do, which is why we’re gonna crack on with the rest of this term, however long that will be and stand up for Tasmania and its people.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

Assuming you do get the leadership, what sort of brand will you bring to the job?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, I thought about that, and I don’t think things are going to change very much. I’ve be turning up for work every day for the last eight years since I’ve been a member, and every day I’ve been driven by what brought me to this place. I’ve got a different history to Cassy. I was a scientist, an epidemiologist, and my work was on the health impacts of climate change. I did the first modelling for Australia ,and international work. What I saw led me to where I am today.

So the climate crisis, the escalating heating, the changes that we’re seeing in the environment, the devastating situation for people who can’t get housing, and who can’t get health when they need it. These are the issues that drive me every day. So nothing’s going to change for the Greens other than we’re going to keep prosecuting the things that Tasmanians have elected us to deliver. And we are going to, especially us every single day in this power sharing parliament, to work collaboratively with other members and get good outcomes for Tasmanians.

Journalist – John Hunt

Will you be endorsing Cassy to run in Hobart?

Rosalie Woodruff

This is a process for the party to go through. So I’m not going to comment on that other than to say that, you know, I absolutely can say that Cassy has got every outstanding merit that would be needed to take up a position like that.

Journalist – unidentified

How and when were you informed with the decision and what was your initial response?

Rosalie Woodruff

I suppose it wasn’t one time and this has been something that Cassy has been mulling over for a while and the timing was hers. And I accept that this is a great time. Really, it’s it’s a perfect time for Cassy to be able to get some regeneration and to take the break that she deserves. She’s worked so hard for for the Greens, so hard for Tasmanians, and she deserves a wee rest. And I’m just I’m really grateful that she’s done so much work in being a mentor for me. She’s very generous, very, very generous person with her time.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

When you entered parliament, you were one of three Greens MPs, that’s now shrunk. Are you the right person to grow the number of Greens MPs going forward?

Rosalie Woodruff

Look, I’m very excited about growing the party and growing the number of MPs and I am very excited about having conversations with Tasmanians. I really love meeting and hearing people’s concerns and doing what I can on behalf of the party to address them. That’s why I became an MP. And I think that’s why people join the Greens because they they feel passionate about change. That’s my background. That’s my life. And in the role as Acting Leader at the moment and a leader if that’s what it turns out to be, then I will be making that my first order issue: working with Greens members and supporters and speaking to people across all the electorates in Tasmania about what they’re concerned about, and what the Greens are planning to do at a future election.

Journalist – unidentified

But the Greens have a candidate (inaudible)

Rosalie Woodruff

Yes, we have.

Journalist – unidentified

So based on the result, I don’t know what the results were based on. How do you think (inaudible).

Rosalie Woodruff

Let’s just pause. The Party hasn’t made a decision about the candidate for the seat of Hobart. So I’m not going to go into sort of speculation about Cassie in that role other than the comments that she’s made today.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

Obviously, becoming a new leader is a really big thing. But with an election that could be any time. How ready are you if it was to be in three months? O are you operating assuming it’s going to be May 2025?

Rosalie Woodruff

No, we’re not operating assuming it’s going to be May 2025. Saying that we will work collaboratively and expect the government and Jeremy Rockliff to want to continue to work to the timeframe that he’s put to the Tasmanian people, which is May 2025. There’s a lot of work to be done between now and then. But we as a party, you know, we’ve shown that we can do this. At the snap election we were ready. Yes, there’s work to be done. Every party has work to do. And so I wouldn’t pretend that if we had a snap election, no one would be as ready as we could be.

But we have members and supporters who every day are working and we often having door knocks and conversations with people around the community. So we have fantastic structures. We have a state council which is in an incredibly strong and very highly functional state. So I’m excited about the state of the party. I’m excited about the level of resourcing and people involved in the party, there’s been a lot of renewal and new membership and supporters. So we’ve got some great people to work with.

Journalist – unidentified

Do you imagine there’ll be some people inside the government breathing a sigh of relief today, knowing that Cassy who is very vocal in the House of Assembly won’t be there. How will you be keeping them to account?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, let’s just say I’ve learned a few tricks from Cassy. And that is, you know, to, to always to always be ready. We’re always ready. And I suppose I expect that Vica Bailey will have an enormous contribution to Parliament. He has amazing skills in negotiation, that’s obvious. Yeah, incredible heart. He’s somebody who has shown that he’s capable of doing work and collaborating with people. He’s brave, strong, and so am I. So we’re just going to keep doing what we do, every day. And yeah, there’ll be someone else sitting next to me. And I look forward to that. I look forward to the renewal of a change Greens.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

Cassy I just have one more for you. There’s been lots of confrontation and collaboration in the chamber over your long career, how do you think the people you deal with over time are going to remember you?

Cassy O’Connor

Gosh, well, I’m sure some will have fonder memories of me than others. I’ve always tried to be kind, particularly kind outside the chamber. If it’s in the chamber, it gets hot, and people are very passionate, because we’re standing up for our values and our communities. So it does get quite volatile in the chamber sometimes and I have clashed with ministers and members. But I don’t know how people will remember me in the chamber. I hope most can remember the good that we do.

Journalist – unidentified

Do you think you’ve raised the standard of behaviour within the House of Assembly over your time?

Cassy O’Connor

I’ve gotten into a fair bit of trouble over the journey. So I’m not sure about that. I’ve been kicked out plenty of times, but only because I am passionate you know, and I really care about this island and its people.

You know in politics, you got to go hard or go home. Rose and I both hold to that. We’ve been in there together, working tenaciously to represent our communities, and people all over who support and believe in the Greens.

Journalist – Adam Langenberg

I’m just trying to wrap my head around it. Are you leaving because you desperately want the seat of Hobart? Are you leaving because you want a break?

Cassy O’Connor

Well, I’ve announced my resignation as the member for Clark today and the leader because it is the right time to go for the Greens and the right time to go for me. It has sometimes been the practice for state representatives in here to perhaps aspire to go to Canberra to be in the House of Reps or the Senate. I couldn’t imagine anything worse. It’s always better here in Tasmania. But I’ve got more to give, and I can be useful. And I would like to be given that opportunity.

Rosalie Woodruff

I think it’s also worth saying that the Greens do things a bit differently to other parties. We have conversations and we think about things you know, so there’s, it might seem surprising, but it’s actually just normal life really to think about what’s next.

Cassy O’Connor

Thanks, folks.