Crossbenchers Demand Compromise From Labor

Labor Leader Dean Winter met with crossbenchers David O’Byrne, Peter George, Craig Garland, Kristie Johnston and George Razay at their parliamentary offices on Thursday 07 August 2025.

Following the meeting Craig Garland and Peter George did a door stop media interview on the steps of Parliament.

Craig Garland
Productive meeting, a collaborative approach, the compromise is the thing, so that will take care of itself over the next 12 days. I’m hoping. I made the statement that I thought labor was the best ones to take us forward and lead this state. There’s a bit of work to be done. So we’ll see what we get to.

Journalist
How do you get to compromise?

Peter George
No, look, you can’t go in detail by detail, when you’re having discussions like this, that would be counter productive. I think what’s important from our point of view is that we’ve talked about methods of ensuring that we get a good four year stable government if labor were to take the Treasury benches. The truth of the matter is there are a lot of issues left to be discussed. A lot of issues on the table, and until we have one, get some of those issues resolved, and they’re the promises that we made to the people who elected us, and until the Labor Party is prepared to actually sit down and talk to the other crossbenchers, which is the Greens, then the idea of a confidence no confidence motion is really moot.

Journalist
Do you have any more talks planned with the Labor leader?

Peter George
Oh, I think there’s going to have to be a lot more talk, let’s face it, there are only 12 more days to go before Parliament sits, and there’s a lot to be hammered out until between now and then.

Journalist
When you’re talking compromise, are we talking compromise on some policy, because obviously that’s the one thing Labor kept saying they were not planning to do.

Peter George

Labor needs to understand that minority government means actually compromising [and] collaborating.

So, you can’t have yes on one side and no on the other side, they need to understand on the issues that are important to our electorate, they need to understand that somewhere between the yes and no is a happy meeting ground where not everybody gets what they want.

But on the other hand, we get good results for Tasmania.

Journalist – David Killick
Is Labor to some extent overestimating their bargaining position. They have 10 seats the combined Greens and independents and minor party is 11 seats, and you all seem to be getting off pretty well at this stage. Are they overplaying their hand?

Craig Garland
You’d have to ask them that.

Journalist – David Killick
Well they are dictating terms to you guys then?

Craig Garland
Well, yeah, there’s been all this talk about collaboration [and] compromise right from the word go, the next day in the paper, they’re saying, we’re not budging on salmon, we’re not budging on native forest logging. Now that’s not collaboration and compromise. The true collaboration and compromise has been with the cross benches and the Greens. We’ve been working together, trying to nut out a solution to make this easy for anybody that’s willing to put their hand up and go. We’re the ones that are doing the collaboration and compromising. I know that because that’s what we’ve been doing.

So the major parties are still stuck in this majority headspace, and they are going to have to come to the terms that it’s a different world, there’s different expectations of the people of this state to make this work. We’re doing our part, now it’s over to them. We’ve done everything we can, to you know, we’re talking about budget integrity, budget reform, and all that, all these matters that we all agree on. We’ve done all that, had all those discussions. Now it is topical stuff, and will be eventually about policy, because let’s face it, two thirds of the state didn’t vote for the Liberal Party.

Peter George
And we’ve done a lot of listening, a lot of listening. What I’m not getting from Labor or Liberal is that they’re listening back, and that’s never going to work. If we’re not listening on both sides it is ever going to work. It’ll take as long as it takes, and we naturally have to make sure that we are going to achieve the best results for the state, and that means, as Craig has said, that means they’ve got to listen to one of what the electorate is telling them. They’re got to get used to the fact that there is a minority government,

Journalist
So from what they’ve said in there, do you get the understanding they will be willing to compromise in some policy, because any public statement or press conference, we’ve heard that is not the case. And voters just want to understand, if you guys have a different view.

Peter George

I think it’s fair to say that we’re not getting a great deal of comfort just at the moment, but I suspect that things will shift over the next 12 days.

Craig Garland
If anyone either of those major parties are serious about forming government, they’ve got to get serious about approaching us in the right way and compromising on the issues that people voted us in. You know, I’m not going in on a wing and prayer hoping that they do the right thing after a few months, because last year, all I saw was labor and liberal in lockstep on just about everything. Now, how is that going to serve my voters that put me in there to represent them and get their issues sorted?

I’m not going in a wing and a prayer. I want something concrete. And the Labor Party, I said I think they’re the best ones to take us forward. They cannot, 100% rely on me going that way if they don’t come to the table and compromise and have those serious discussions. I said that they were the best ones at the time because they were the only option, so that’s where we are.

Journalist […]

Peter George
If one party or another expects to take the Treasury benches. They’re going to have to understand us. Craig and I constantly say is, they’ve got to understand that there is compromise, there is room to move. They have to move. We have done all the listening. They have done all the blocking.

Craig Garland
And everyone’s view is important.

Everyone’s for too long… the way they’ve treated the Greens, whether you like them or loathe them, you know they’ve stopped short of sticking them up on poles and crucifying them.

They’re blaming them for everything.

They’ve not created anything. They’re trying to protect our environment. Now, everyone, my friends, whether they are liberal labor environment is top of their list, and it seems to be the last thing on the list of this crowd in here when they’re ticking off on projects. You know, the whole of state business case. That showed nothing about the environmental impacts and costs associated… that tells you where their heads are at. It’s all about business corporations. They’re putting profit above people.

And what me and Peter and the cross benches and the greens are about is people before profits, and more importantly, the place that we live in. That is the most important thing right now, because it’s being trashed, it’s been treated as second rate, and then in the next breath, they’re trying to attract people to come to the tourist island, it’s clean and beautiful down here. You can’t have two bob each way, and we’re at the crossroads now. Where we go from here, I think, is recognising the values of Tasmania, and the Tasmanians recognise those values, but there seems to be a disconnect with the parties.

It’s all about them. That’s what it’s all about. Now it’s not all about them anymore. We’re in a new space in this government. They’ve got to man up and accept that and make the right concessions and have the right conversations to make this work. Because, like I said before, we are collaborating. We’ve compromised on things that are important to us. We’ve already done that. They haven’t. They haven’t even begun to do it.

So it’s all over to them, and they’ve got 13 days. They say 24 hours is a long time in politics. Well, we’ve got 13 lots of 24 hours so,

Peter George
And this is a moment of great opportunity. I mean, we could actually affect some real change now, but the old parties do have to understand that there is opportunity, and rather than take it as a threat to their power,

Journalist
Are you able to explain to people who weren’t in the room like, what were the positives that each you actually saw?

Craig Garland
No one can argue we need budget. We need to accept address the terrible state. You know, it was compared by Treasury the other day. Well, they said, we can’t just pull one lever.

We’ve got to pull a number of levers. And basically, they [Treasury] compared it like paying your mortgage off with your credit card.

That’s where we are right now, and to be talking about big infrastructure projects, billions of dollars at a time when we’re paying off the mortgage with the credit card, it’s ignorant. It’s ignorant to where we are. There has to be some hard decisions made, and they have to make them. They’re the only ones capable to do it. We’ll prop them up, providing they come to the table and sit down and talk to us.

Peter George
We will work with them on budget repair. I mean, no one could ignore the fact that we are in a moment of crisis.

Journalist
Do you really? Did you? I mean, is their budget plan all that different, though, right? I mean, you know, one of the key things Treasury says is that we need new revenue, and both of them are just relying on growing the economy. They’re both just kind of looking at cuts. You know, Labor might just outlines the cut a bit more. Is Labor’s plan really that much better?

Peter George
Truth is, we haven’t seen any detail yet. The Labor Party acknowledges the fact that there’s a real crisis in the budget. Of course, they blame the Liberals for it, fair enough. But as for any outcomes, for how they’ll actually go about budget repair, very short of detail indeed.

Journalist
They’ve ruled out things like salmon royalties, increased mining royalties and taxes.

Craig Garland
And you can’t rely on economic growth in the state as small as what we are.

Peter George
They’ve got to stop ruling out stuff.

Craig Garland
And they’ve got to step away from their close affiliation with corporations and their dollars. There’s all this talk. It’s always about, you know, business confidence. We’ve got to have stable government for business confidence. What about community confidence? The community confidence is why I’m in this Parliament, because there is a lack of it. Right across the board. They have no confidence. In this, this crowd in here, managing our environment in a sustainable way, managing our industries and whatever you know, like with the whole of state business case for Marinus. The major industrials, their prices are going to go through the roof. They are so ignorant to everything and everybody, and they just need to realise that it’s people and place. And it’s really easy. You’ve only got so many levers you can pull, and those levers you pull them, you know? And it’s just acknowledging the fact where we are.

We are in a dire situation budget wise. We’re living in the beautiful space in the world, but budget wise, we’re in a terrible position. And this division, with the stadium, with salmon farms, with native forest logging, with the North West transmission development, with Marinus. You know, it’s all divide and conquer.

We need to be bringing everyone into the one space, looking out for everyone’s interests. And that’s why this empowerment is so important. It is reflective. You’ve got everybody represented in this state right now. All those views are important.

The miserable nature, since I’ve been in here, they’re just miserable. They won’t concede one inch.

They have to give, and that’s where it is right now.

They’re the ones that have to give and give up and approach us and talk to us. We’ve already done all that. We’ve collaborated, we’ve compromised. We’ve got our position on just about everything.

Now it’s over to them to do the rest.

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