Last week I supported Labor’s motion of no confidence in Premier Jeremy Rockliff because I no longer have confidence in his leadership.
Rockliff has presided over the Spirit of Tasmania debacle which will cost the state over half a billion dollars. His government has just delivered the worst budget in our state’s history, and he is forcing Tasmanians to fund a multi-billion-dollar, gold-plated stadium in Hobart that we neither want, nor need and certainly can’t afford.
The no-confidence motion was not about rejecting the Liberal Government as a whole. After 11 years in power, the Liberals have run out of steam, but I was still willing to give them a chance to reset by changing their leader without triggering an early election.
When I was elected, it was on a promise to make this Parliament work. That’s what Tasmanians expect—not just from me, but from every member of the House.
Yet we now face a situation where both major parties have chosen to force an early election rather than work with the Parliament that voters elected.
Jeremy Rockliff’s refusal to step down and respect the will of the Parliament, and Labor’s unwillingness to even try to form government, shows exactly how the major parties put their own self-interest ahead of the public interest.
As inhabitants of Australia’s poorest, smallest and most isolated state, Tasmanians have learned to cooperate and compromise, and they expect the same of their elected representatives.
Tasmanian voters have every right to feel let down. They fulfilled their part of the democratic contract: they showed up on election day and cast their ballots.
In return, they expected their elected representatives to do the job of governing for the next four years. It is the members of the Labor and Liberal parties that have failed to uphold their end of the bargain.
Both major parties are now banking on the chaos and uncertainty they’ve helped create, hoping voters will reward them with a majority, at the expense of the independents.
But I believe Tasmanians see through this. Over the past year, they’ve witnessed how minority government can foster accountability and genuine collaboration.
This election is a chance to move beyond the dysfunction—to reject self-serving politics and choose a more cooperative, representative and responsible path forward.
Craig Garland is a north-west Tasmanian, fisherman and grassroots community advocate turned independent Member of Parliament. He was elected to stand up for the electorate of Braddon in State Parliament’s House of Assembly, following years of campaigning for better fisheries management and speaking out on many other Tasmanian issues.
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Roderick
June 13, 2025 at 15:43
This is more common sense from Craig Garland!
It’s so refreshing to read the words of a politician who cuts through the crap and tells it how it really is. Jeremy Rockliff is always telling us he runs a ‘transparent’ government, but that is a barefaced lie. He has obfuscated at every turn.
I recall a television comedy skit many years ago portraying the Liberal party as the explorers Burke and Wills. The party was lost in the desert and dying from a lack of water. As they explorers wandered aimlessly in the desert they had a very nasty accident. They ran into the back of a train of thought!
Craig, I hope you, and the very few others who have the courage to speak the truth, are successfully re-elected.