Transcript of media conference with Andrew Jenner, pre-selection candidate for Lyons for the National Party; Pip Allwright, Chairperson of the National Party of Tasmania; and Senator Bridget McKenzie, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, and leader of the National Party in the Senate, Richmond, 14 June 2025. Jenner was a Jacqui Lambie Network candidate in 2024 and was elected to the House of Assembly on that basis.

Pip Allwright

I’m the Chairperson for the National Party of Tasmania. I’d like to introduce you to Andrew Jenner, who’s going to be our candidate for the National Party. He will be standing as every other candidate who has been applied, it’s opened now so any members can join or belong and apply to be a candidate. So I’d like to introduce Andrew Jenner as our new candidate for the National Party.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

What made you decide to seek pre-selection with the National Party?

Andrew Jenner

It was really easy. I mean, you have to remember that 70 to 80% of my area, which is the division of Lyons, is rural and regional, and I don’t think there’s a party position to represent it better than the Nationals.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Do you feel like you represent National values?

Andrew Jenner

Yes, very much so. You know, I was with the Liberals for years. Nationals, to me, represent even nearer to what I believe in. You know, I come from the country. I worked on a dairy farm as a kid. You know, I’m very much that way. So, yeah, absolutely.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

What are some of those values you feel like –

Andrew Jenner

Well, I think they act … they what they do is they move the centre of focus away from towns and move it out to the areas that have been neglected for so long. And that’s what we need to do. There’s so many areas that are just neglected because there’s either not enough votes for them or they just not thought of. And it’s those people, which I know from going round Lyons and meeting them, especially at the community houses, at the Men’s Sheds and places like that. They’re almost forgotten.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

The nationals are a much bigger party than JLN, with a lot more structure. I mean, how would that benefit you?

Andrew Jenner

Massively. You know, I love structure. As I said, I was a party member for 40 years, so I work better in a structure, as you know. I mean, with the JLN, even, you know, there was a structure to that that I wasn’t willing to step outside of, which was leaving. Yeah, that was that structure. I stepped into it. I’ve … you know, Jacqui was very kind to give me that chance, and I wasn’t going to let down the people that voted for me on behalf of the JLN. And, you know, can I just say now to those members that I will be still representing, and Jacqui has endorsed me to hold up their values and Jacqui’s values.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Are you disappointed that Jacqui’s not running a state campaign?

Andrew Jenner

Of course I am. I mean, but Jacqui’s, you know, it was up to Jacqui, not up to me. You know, we have partied absolutely amicably. You know, we are quite happy how it’s gone. Jacqui just didn’t feel up to running another candidate, and I totally agree that. And she asked me, you know, to run again, but, and she’s very happy for me to run with the Nationals.

Journalist – unidentified

Why didn’t you go back to the Liberals?

Andrew Jenner

Because of what … we’re in this situation, because of them. Let’s put it this way. I mean, Rockliff could have ended all of this by just handing the baton over to somebody else. But you know, to me, it’s just arrogance and not having any faith in your ministers. Because we wouldn’t be here today if it had just given it to any one of his ministers, we’d have still been doing government. In my no confidence vote, you’d have seen I said that I would support Labor or Liberal if they put up a candidate to keep stability for Tasmania, but they didn’t want to do that. They’ve brought us now to this.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

The Nationals are in coalition with the Liberals, generally speaking, you were keen, actually, sort of helping to tear this government down, or at least take the knock off the Premier –

Andrew Jenner

You mean hold him to account.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Well you did vote for the no confidence motion.

Andrew Jenner

Correct, I did, yes.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Will you be more likely to try and work with the Liberals if they’re in power again, or would you be just as willing to vote for –

Andrew Jenner

I think you remember John Tucker. John Tucker left them as you know, and he has no love for the Liberals. Quite rightly. We are there to hold them to account. We are not there to prop them up as a party. You know, by all means, if they fall into line with what the Nationals want and believe in then yes, of course, we’ll vote for them and what’s in best for Tasmania, but we’re not there just to prop them up. No way.

Tasmanian Times

You did have the supply and confidence agreement in place with Jeremy Rockliff, and then you eventually voted against that. So how could either party have good faith that they could deal with you again?

Andrew Jenner

Because I never had a supply and confidence agreement. That’s incorrect. The supply and conference was with the JLN. The JLN, once the two ladies left, that supply and conference agreement was null and void by both parties. So I never had one. I met with Jeremy after that, and we just had one on the voice. And I said I would cover him if there was an agreement that, you know, we both agreed on otherwise I would keep them under, you know, in tow,

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

You’ve spoken in the past about your concerns around salmon farming, but I believe the Nationals back it. What does that mean for your position now?

Andrew Jenner

Well, I mean, it means nothing. I mean, I’ve always said that I have been against the salmon farming in its current form. You know, they could move it on land. We could look at taxing them better, you know, there are lots of ways we can make this work. So that’s a that’s a sort of an issue that’s in flux at the moment. And we’re talking with the, obviously, I’m talking with the Nationals over that.

My position hasn’t changed in the sense of the economic, the economic and ecological damage they’re doing. But I think they’re things that can be, you know, worked out, as opposed to just throwing the baby out with the bath water. I mean, there is still jobs there in our rural areas that need to be addressed as well.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Will you need to stick to the party line on that? If you decide to go with the Nationals, don’t you need to, you know, support salmon?

Andrew Jenner

Correct. I am a party person, I’m afraid. You know, I will stick to what party tell me. I will represent those salmon people as much as I can, but at the end of the day, I’m joining a party, and that’s what I’ve always done. So you’ll

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

stop you obviously, just again, talked about how you’re concerned, just the answer before,

Andrew Jenner

well, I’m hoping they’ll be addressed. We will talk about it as a party,

Tasmanian Times

With the assembly being dissolved it cut short discussion on the budget. Did you feel the budget was heading in the right direction, or, or what would you have liked to change?

Andrew Jenner

I mean, if you think of that motion, that motion I’d spoken out on all three of those subjects. One, the GBEs, I didn’t want them to be sold. I’ve seen that in England, how it just becomes profit driven. Two, the ferry fiasco. I mean, you know, they can’t even get the port right. We’re looking at 90 million, then 493 million. And then, of course, the budget. And the real budget issue is that we are spending far more than we are earning, and we just can’t keep doing that. They’re looking at knocking out two and a half thousand essential services just to start paying for a budget. They’ve got their priorities, I mean, in my faith, all arse about. You know, I won’t say that last bit, you can cut that bit.

But, you know, their priorities are just so way out. So, yeah, I mean, and we just can’t, Tasmania cannot keep spending. Our infrastructure spends are more than any other state in the country, you know, and we’ve got 550,000. It’s crazy,

Bridget McKenzie

Bridget McKenzie, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, and leader of the National Party in the Senate.

It’s fantastic to welcome with Pip Andrew Jenner into the National Party here in Tasmania as a Member of Parliament. He’s been a strong advocate for his community and for the industries and the people of Lyons in the Tasmanian Parliament. And I’m sure if he is successful in pre-selection on Saturday and in the upcoming state election, he’ll continue his tradition and his brand of not taking a backward step in standing up for the people that have sent him to Hobart to represent them.

Obviously, the National Party is not a protest party like the JLN. We are a party of government. We are in state and federal coalition governments ,and sometimes with the Labor Party in history, but traditionally coalition governments or alliances. But we are a completely separate party, something that often the press gallery forgets. So I think it’s really important for Tasmanians to understand that the Tasmanian National Party believes the time is right for Tasmanians to have a third party of government.

As you’ve seen both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party squabbling amongst themselves about the privileges of Parliament and of representation, and the thing that’s getting forgotten in this whole conversation is, what do the people of Tasmanian need, deserve and expect, not just from their representatives, but from their,Parliament.

So we are confident in Bass, Braddon and Lyons that we are going to be running fabulous candidates, after our pre-selection on Saturday, who are going to make it their business to meet their local community, make sure that they put their best policies forward and seek the trust of the people in Bass, Braddon and Lyons to head to the polls and hopefully gain their trust at the election.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

As you said, you’re a party of government. Would it be your expectation that members tried to offer at least supply and confidence if we end up in another minority situation, which is likely?

Bridget McKenzie

Well, I’ve been in politics long enough to know that it’s not over till the fat lady sings. So that’s a conversation for post election day. Right now, every single candidate, every single member of the Tasmanian Nationals, every single member of the federal National Party team – you’ll see a few of those over the coming weeks – are absolutely focused on the people of Tasmania.

What is our proposition? Backing small business, agriculture, mining, forestry and fishing, making sure that regional Tasmanians have access to health and education services that people in Hobart take for granted. That’s what our political party and movement has been doing for over 100 years, and we want to continue to do that here in Tasmania, and that’s our offering going forward. So, great to have Andrew joining the party and putting his hand up for pre-selection, and I know our members will take what he says next Saturday very, very seriously.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

And Andrew obviously has some concerns around salmon farming, but is willing to sit by the party line, how do you sort of make that work?

Bridget McKenzie

Well, I think it’s important to realise that all industry has to be governed by appropriate environmental regulation. We have some of the toughest environmental standards in the world. We need to have confidence in that, as Australians be proud of that. But where there are issues, where new industries develop and our regulation might not have kept up to pace, then you have to examine that and look at that.

So I think it’s important that the salmon industry is supported to continue those well paid jobs right across Tasmanian not just out in the industry itself, but in the processing and marketing of that product. I’m from the mainland, and I love to eat Tassie salmon as often as I can. So you know, we’ve got to be sensible and serious about that, which is what the National Party is about. We’re not into shutting down viable industries that employ people in high paying jobs, but we know and appreciate how important the right environmental regulation is to ensure that we take care of and be good stewards of our beautiful environmental assets as well.

Tasmanian Times

Have the Nationals approached the other two former Jacqui Lambie Network sitting Members of Parliament?

Bridget McKenzie

Well, Pip and I have been really, really public and open. We’re up in Launnie last week, earlier this week, opening nominations for the Tasmanian Nationals. We’ve been flooded with interest from across Tasmania to join the party, and for those that feel that both the major parties aren’t representing their interests for both nomination forms as well.

So we’re not going to go into confidential conversations that we’ve had with anyone in Tasmania. If you want to know what we’re talking about, you’re welcome to join the party, join our branch meetings, have those sort of conversations, and even in the hyper democratic party that we are, obviously branch members will be delegates that are actually voting on our candidates on Saturday. That’s a great tradition in our party, and one that we’re going to continue.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Are you hoping – as you have in Hare-Clark seven in each seat – are you hoping you’ll have seven for each electorate that you’re running in?

Bridget McKenzie

Well, the party executive has made the decision to run in Bass, Braddon and Lyons, also made a decision to run five candidates. If that changes post pre-selection on Saturday, that’ll be a matter for the party executive to decide

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Are you able to say roughly how many people have put up their hands so far?

Bridget McKenzie

I couldn’t, I don’t have the details. But every, every time we have a meeting, there’s more and more interest. So we’re getting… all fielding phone calls. There seems to be a real exciting energy about having a third viable option, a serious party that is a party of government, understands, appreciates the Westminster system, supports small businesses and local industry is a centre right political party.

Because there are a lot of disaffected Tasmanians who believe they don’t want a Macquarie Point stadium proposal. They do love their footy, as those of us in southern Australia do, and believe a better solution needs to be found for that problem as well. And they want a government that backs small business. Every village I go through as I drove down the beautiful electorate of Lyons this morning from the top end, you know, there’s so much going on in this state. They need a government that releases people to be enterprising and aspirational, and that’s sort of our founding principles.

Tasmanian Times

The Nationals have been a strongly pro-nuclear party, if I can say that, how do you think that’s going to play out in Bass, Braddon and Lyons?

Bridget McKenzie

Well, we made it very clear at the federal election that Tasmania was not one of the seven sites that we had stated in our nuclear policy. But you know, if you want to get to net zero, if you actually believe in a low emissions future, and you don’t live in a place like Tasmania with your water resources, then there’s not a lot of options.

Because right now, our beautiful farmland is being carpeted with solar panels and wind turbines, that’s what’s… and transmission lines, that’s what’s happening on the mainland. So with a backyard full of uranium that we’re selling to the world, with the ICP actually recommending the globe increasing nuclear power generation to stay a rich, prosperous and industrial globe without and a low emissions future, nuclear has to be part of that conversation. So it’s about renewables, using our gas resources appropriately, and part of our energy production, particularly for our industrial sector, our smelters and refineries and other to come from net zero nuclear.

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

Given that you guys are the only sort of anti-stadium party, so that’s not sort of far left, and we’re also seeing the Tasmanians –

Bridget McKenzie

I just want to say we’re not anti-stadium. We are anti Macquarie Point proposal. It is a serious detail that should not be missed. Thank you. Given

Journalist – Lucy MacDonald

If people want to vote against that, it’s the Greens or sort of your party, and then, given the sort of frustrations we’re seeing with both major parties, is this the best chance the Nationals have had to crack Tasmania?. I’m aware you haven’t fielded a candidate for a decade.

Bridget McKenzie

I think the opportunity is here for Tasmanians to go with a party that understands the serious task of government, that understands the what you need to do to be a fiscally responsible partner, that also wants to see services delivered to every Tasmanian, not just the people that can afford it, and not just the people in Hobart. and to be a party that puts communities first.

I mean, we are a party of rural and regional Australia. Regional capitals like Launceston, Devonport, places like Richmond, that is our heartland, that is in our DNA, and Tasmanians have got an opportunity at this election to pick a party that’s going to put them first. Because we are never the Premier, we are never the Prime Minister, and we’re always with our communities, and that’s our offering at this state election.

Tasmanian Times

If we just put salmon aside, what are Nationals policies specific to rural and regional Tasmanian – agriculture and so on,regional development – that are a point of difference with the existing Tasmanian Liberals?

Bridget McKenzie

We’re going to leave that to our candidates to be announcing throughout a state election campaign. Having just come out of the federal election campaign, dumping all your policies on day… what? Three. No, not a great idea.

So as we made it clear, we think our biggest point of difference is on the Macquarie point Stadium. This is a billion dollar proposal that we believe is a bad deal for Tasmania. We want to see an AFL Tassie Devils team, like the vast majority of Tasmanians. Young people are growing up playing footy, you know. And when I was in government, we were giving support to those smaller football clubs right around Tasmania for female change rooms and the like, so that more young Taswegians could actually get in and play in a safe environment. They need to aspire to play footy for their own state team. So we understand that.

But having been, having been and being the Shadow Infrastructure Minister, I do understand it doesn’t cost a billion dollars to build stadiums. So there is a better deal that can be achieved for Tasmanians, and that’s why we are not supporting the Macquarie Point stadium.

We are wanting to see better health and education services to regional areas, and we also want to support agriculture, mining, forestry and the fishing industry. So we want to see local jobs. We know, as well as anybody, that too many Tasmanians leave to pursue opportunities offshore, and we want to be the party that backs business and enterprise, therefore backs great local jobs in a whole raft of areas.

Journalist – unidentified

Can I just ask what your position on Marinus link is given renewable [inaudible] generally? You know, Marinus Link?

Bridget McKenzie

Yeah, I do. I was in the cabinet that had that conversation a while ago. So I think the Marinus Link is – and this is my personal opinion, because the Tasmanian Nationals haven’t got a policy position that they’re ready to announce as yet – but my personal position on Marinus Link is that it’s a win win situation.

You are blessed with a renewable energy source that mainland can’t compete with it is also a source of financial gain for Tasmanians, and that is something that should increase in value over time as the mainland requires more and more renewable power. So I wouldn’t like to see that project off the table because it not only delivers renewable energy to the mainland, but importantly provides a revenue source for Tasmanians given your hydro assets.

 

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