Transcript of media conference with Greens Leader Rosalie Woodruff, Parliament Lawns, Hobart, 11 April 2024.

Rosalie Woodruff

The announced cabinet ministries are a lurch to the right for an anti-science Liberal government under Jeremy Rockliff. It’s a very concerning and disappointing announcement. We’ve got Eric Abetz in charge of logging and burning Tasmania’s forests. We’ve got a dishonest and incompetent Roger Jaensch still in charge of Children and young people and Aboriginal Affairs, two portfolios he made a huge mess of. We’ve got no Climate Change or Science ministries any more. And we’ve got a part time Health Minister again, it’s a really terrible situation for Tasmania. After the snap election, we’ve got a chaotic minority Liberal government situation, and a far more right wing and conservative set of ministries and ministers.

Journalist – Elliott

So today the Premier has said that those portfolios do still exist. They’re just within other portfolios or they’ve been placed in other portfolios. Do you think that that means that there’ll be less of a focus on those areas?

Rosalie Woodruff

It’s poppycock. The ministries are about the priorities of the government. It’s obvious that Jeremy Rockliff doesn’t consider the climate emergency to be a priority. He’s obviously comfortable with talking down science and having a climate denier like Eric Abetz in charge of important portfolios like Forestry. There’s no doubt that he’s felt the pressure off his right wing Cabinet.

It is a terrible sign for Tasmanians, who went to an election and you know, two thirds of people in Parliament are not sitting in the Liberal Cabinet. And yet we’ve got a bunch of right wing conservatives, climate deniers, science deniers who are running important portfolios. With some of the most incompetent and dishonest people like Roger Jaensch back in really critical portfolios like Children and young people and Aboriginal Affairs,

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

The Premier also said that anyone who knows Guy Barnett can’t call him a part time Health Minister. Why do you disagree with that?

Rosalie Woodruff

He is a part time Health Minister because he’s got also an enormous load with Attorney General and Justice. The responsibility of having the Commission of Inquiry legislation should make that almost just its own portfolio for a minister all by itself. The responsibilities of making sure that we don’t continue to have people dying on the ambulance ramp, people not being able to get an ambulance when they need it from the Health portfolio, is also a full time job. And yet you’ve got these two of the biggest portfolios under one minister, it’s just not possible to do them justice, something’s got to slip. It’s either our response to the Commission of Inquiry, or it’s people who desperately need health services that they’re not getting. We are very concerned at the the arrangement that Jeremy Rockliff has struck.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

One of the reasons for expanding the House to 35 was supposedly to lighten loads. I mean, were you surprised to see that AG and Health was still grouped?

Rosalie Woodruff

I’m just really shocked to see that Guy Barnett has still got these two mega portfolios. The whole point of having a restored House was to spread the load because there has been such an obvious lack of quality of services that have been delivered under the the ministries that we had in the last term of government. It’s clearly the case that Jeremy Rockliff has got such low level talent that he’s not prepared to spread the load of these important portfolios out. That’s his problem. But it’s actually going to be the problem of Tasmanians who need a hospital bed on time, and who need care exactly when they need it. That’s the problem when you’ve got a part time Health Minister like Guy Barnett,

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

We were always going to see Eric Abetz brought into Cabinet. Were there portfolios you think might have suited him better.

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, there’s no doubt by his own words that Eric Abetz is a climate denier and a science denier. And it’s totally implausible to imagine that he has had no influence over the makeup of these Cabinet ministries. It is a disgrace that in a climate emergency we don’t have a Climate Change portfolio. It ought to be elevated to the Premier himself to have it as his responsibility. It is such a critical issue today and into the future. The decisions that we make in government are so important for all of Tasmanians’ future. To not have that in the Premier’s office, let alone any portfolio responsibility, is really unbelievable.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Jane Howlett’s been brought back into Cabinet. Now obviously no one can legally say if she is being investigated by the Integrity Commission, but there’s certainly an Integrity Commission-shaped cloud over her head at the moment. Do you think it’s appropriate to bring her back into Cabinet?

Rosalie Woodruff

I think Jeremy Rockliff has got problems all through his Cabinet members, and that is replete in the failures of the people he’s put into certain positions. How could Roger Jaensch be given the portfolio of Children and young people again? He’s made such an appalling job of dealing with the real issues in the Ashley Youth Detention Centre Yes, how could we have so many of these ministers in charge of their ministries, there’s no doubt that Jeremy Rockliff has got problems. Having people of integrity in roles is critical. And that’s why we need the Premier to rule out that any of his ministers have been referred to the Integrity Commission.

Journalist – Elliott

Eric Abetz was today asked where he standards on conversion practices and the proposed ban. He said that he doesn’t really understand why he gets asked about it so much by journalists when it was brought up by one person when he was on the doors during the campaign. He also emphasised a need to focus on real issues like the cost of living. Why is it important that we know where Eric Abetz stands on this issue?

Rosalie Woodruff

Well, I think Eric Abetz appears to be starting off his journey in Tasmanian state politics with a little bit of veiled dishonesty. It’s obviously a concern for people who are affected just as so many issues are. We don’t have to have 100% of Tasmanians being affected by an issue for them to understand that they want to do the right thing by people. People who are LGBTQIA+ are not broken, they do not need fixing. It is a harmful practice, conversion practices. And that is why it has to be banned in Tasmania as it has been in other states.

So, you know, we expect Jeremy Rockliff to hold true to his commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community. He made that commitment during the campaign. We expect him to hold true and bring forward proper legislation, to abandon the legislation of last year and bring forward proper new legislation in consultation with that community to make sure this issue is resolved. If Eric Abetz doesn’t think it’s an issue for him, that’s fine. But there are many people who are affected and will be affected into the future, victims survivors, who need to have this legislation banned. So they are no longer being attacked for who they are.

Journalist – Elliott

[inaudible] Eric Abetz’s track record when it comes to [inaudible]

Rosalie Woodruff

I think people can go back through the comments that Eric Abetz has made in his time in federal parliament and see that he is has proved himself to be no friend to LGBTQIA+ people. He seems to have a problem with people being their true selves. He seems to have a problem with difference. And importantly, here he is in Tasmania state parliament, it is not the federal parliament. We are in Tasmania as a state of people. Tasmanians voted strongly in support of marriage equality, we have the strongest anti-discrimination laws in the country. We strongly support the right of people to go about their lives and live included in society LGBTQIA+ people. Eric Abetz needs to understand he’s not in federal parliament anymore, he’s in the state parliament and we have always supported a position of inclusion and not division. The Greens are going to be strongly going back into Parliament, representing the majority of Tasmania who want us to work together in this way.

Tasmanian Times

The Liberals strongly said very little about the Development Assessment Panels concept during the election campaign. But I see that they’ve now rolled –

Rosalie Woodruff

This is planning?

Tasmanian Times

– Housing and Planning into one portfolio with Felix Ellis and there’s a Parliamentary Secretary for it, Simon Behrakis, how do you view that?

Rosalie Woodruff

It’s another step towards the corporate donors. And let’s just put on the record again that we don’t know who backed the Liberal and Labour parties at this election. We don’t know we don’t have donations reforms like we needed to. It’s a commitment that the Greens made to go back into Parliament at the first instance, and table electoral reform laws, because we have to fix up our donation system.

Clearly, the property industry and developers, big developers, would like to have an even sweeter deal with our planning laws than they currently do. They’d love to take councils out of the picture. The Greens support the community, the majority of Tasmanians, who want to have planning laws that look at all of the issues and give people an opportunity to have their say about developments, rather than them being taken over by a panel that’s been set up by, you know, a Liberal, pro-development government that would take away the right for communities to have a say. It’s very concerning that you have Planning and Housing in the same space. They’re both major portfolios. And, you know, we’ll keep watching that.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

The three members of the Jacqui Lambie Network have signed a deal with the Liberals, well, signed a deal with Jeremy Rockliff guaranteeing them confidence and supply. The deal includes things like, you know, they need to give the Liberals 24 hours notice before voting against any legislation. They can’t support binding motions. And they seem to have gotten very little in return. What do you make of this deal?

Rosalie Woodruff

I think the deal the JLN Members have struck is incredibly disappointing. It’s disappointing for all the people who voted for a change from the last decade of the mess of the Liberals in government. People who voted for integrity and transparency would be shocked to see that deal. They have they have sold themselves signed themselves up to an agreement. And they got they got nothing for it.

You know, they’ve talked about into integrity and transparency. But there’s nothing to show. They could have had an ICAC. They could have had actual electoral law reform and there’s nothing concrete in that. So we are, you know, we’re really disappointed that that’s what they’ve sold themselves to: nothing, except a worse situation for themselves in Parliament.

And it shows that Jeremy Rockliff has been essentially bullying and throwing the power of his office at new Members who have got no experience. And it’s the type of approach that we’ve seen from Jeremy Rockliff that he had with John Tucker and Lara Alexander. It’s the sort of attitude that we saw with him responding to the Elise Archer matter. And if that’s the way he’s going to go forward, throwing his weight around bullying members, you know, using his weight of his office to force things on people who haven’t had time to think properly about the the agreement, well, it’s a bad sign.

It’s not too late. And the JLN has still got a month till we go back to Parliament. And I hope that they will go back and listen to their community, listen to the people who voted for them, and see if those people are actually really happy for them to be signed up to nothing. With less transparency, and the same conditions that every other member of parliament gets anyway. So I think they should take a step back and have a look at what they’ve done and listen to some people other than Jeremy Rockliff who’s been waving bells and trinkets in front of them, but they haven’t actually achieved anything for the people who voted for them

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Do you think they’ve been taken advantage of?

Rosalie Woodruff

Yes, I do. I think they’ve been absolutely taken advantage of. I think Jeremy Rockliff has hefted his weight around, has used the power of his office has kind of, you know, wooed them with probably misinformation about what they could have got, little understanding that they have so much capacity to make real change. They could have had an ICAC, they could have had a electoral donation laws changed, but they’ve achieved nothing in their agreement.

Tasmanian Times

That agreement specifies three reviews to be completed within twelve months: the Integrity Commission, the RTI process, donations. How do the Greens want those reviews to be done, given that the Liberals and the JLNS have committed to it, how how would you like to see those reviews actually implemented?

Rosalie Woodruff

I’m yawning at the idea of doing a review on electoral donations. Honestly, that just like makes me fall asleep. We are not going to wait for that, we are going to put down legislation. We don’t need another review on how to reform our electoral laws, we do not need it. It’s all been done so many times, all we need is action. So when the Labour Party failed in the last term of government, where the Liberals have comprehensively shown themselves to be utterly disinterested in changing our electoral laws, the Greens are going to go back in and produce the legislation that we need to have to make Tasmania’s electoral donations free of corporate influences and special interests.

Journalist – Elliott

And just going back to the JLN, you had some hope that they valued the environment and climate-related issues. Does them signing this agreement dashes those hopes that you had and that they’ll be more conservative?

Rosalie Woodruff

It’s all up to them and what they do in the next month. At the moment what they’ve done is that they’ve signed themselves into an arrangement where they will walk into Parliament with their hands behind their back. They will have less power than the Liberal backbenchers that they will be sitting next to. And I think that’s a really sad and sorry situation. And I think it just shows how much they were taken advantage of by Jeremy Rockliff. On all the issues that they would be concerned about, anything that they might have talked to people in their electorate about changing, they won’t have the capacity to do that under the arrangements that they’ve made.

So if they want to be able to respond to motions on the floor of the House, then they’ll have to go and ask permission and and get a little permission slip from the Premier. That is not what independent members said to electorates, to people that they were standing for, to have to get a permission slip from the Premier if they want to answer a Greens or Labor or another independent motion on the floor of the House.

How will they be able to investigate whether a minister has behaved dishonestly, when they can’t have the conversation on the floor of the House without getting permission from the Premier. It just doesn’t fly. And I don’t think it’ll hold together. It’s so far from the sort of stability that Jeremy Rockliff was promising Tasmanians.

I’ll just finish by saying, I’m really looking forward on behalf of the Greens to working closely with the JLN members. And I’ve got no doubt that there’s many conversations that that they would like to have about the reason that they came to government, I have got no doubt that they’ve got good hearts. And I think that they’ve been taken advantage of, and I think there’s an opportunity for them to have a think about what they’ve signed up to and get the views of other people. And the Greens are certainly going to be having conversations just to let them know there is another way that they could consider doing things.