Felix Ellis,Liberal Member for Braddon
With no plan of their own, and having completely run out of ideas, Labor returned to type this week in Parliament by politicising the pandemic at every opportunity, and issuing a stack of negative, scaremongering press releases.
The latest of these was Dean Winter's absurd claims about Tasmania's energy security with our dam storages at 51.4 per cent – the highest since 2014 – and the rain bucketing down around us!
This weekend would have seen the ALP State Conference being held at Blundstone Arena, where they might have been able to come up with some new ideas - except that it was conveniently cancelled to avoid an all-in brawl over Rebecca White's embattled leadership.
Ms White repeatedly refused to answer media questions as to whether she had any part in the cancellation, saying only that the decision was taken by the ALP's National Executive and the National Secretary.
However, the recent revelation that grassroots Labor party members were planning a no-confidence motion in Ms White at the Conference led one commentator to suggest that if it had gone ahead, "it could have given hit TV show Squid Game a run for its money." (1)
'Angered' Labor Party members are circulating a petition to overturn the cancellation of the State Conference, and it's understood that at least one Labor MP has signed the petition.
Do the rest of Ms White's caucus colleagues still have confidence in her recycled leadership, given the civil war raging in the Labor Party which she seems incapable of stopping and after 'star recruit' Bastian Seidel quit, because of the party's "toxic environment"?
After the inglorious resignation of David O'Byrne, Ms White said she would 'unite the Party' this time, and 'end the infighting' – but she has failed to do so, and it's just got worse.
If Rebecca White wanted to give confidence and certainty to Tasmanian families and businesses, she could have provided bipartisan support in Parliament this week for our safe border reopening plan Reconnecting Tasmania.
But she can't provide that, because she can't unite her bitterly-divided team: it's clear that she is Leader-in-name-only.
(1) Emily Baker ABC 8/10/21
