Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff says her party cannot support Labor leader Dean Winter’s bid to become premier “at this stage”, claiming he has demonstrated “no capacity or intention to negotiate in good faith” with her party.
A motion of no confidence in Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff’s government, and confidence in a Labor minority government is expected to be moved when state parliament resumes next Tuesday.
Labor needs the five Greens, plus three other crossbenchers to support it for it to be successful.
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Following a meeting with Mr Winter on Tuesday morning, Dr Woodruff said Mr Winter had also not shown any intention to make policy compromises “on the issues we promised Tasmanians we’d fight for”.
“At this stage we cannot have any confidence in the proposed motion to make Dean Winter the premier of Tasmania in parliament next week,” she said.
Dean Winter has been courting the crossbenchers, but has consistently said he will not do a “deal” with the Greens. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
‘Time is running out’
Dr Woodruff said the door “remained open” for further negotiations with Labor, but Mr Winter needed to come to the bargaining table if he wanted the support of the Greens.
“Labor got some 25 per cent of the vote, but under Dean Winter they’re acting like they get 100 per cent of their way,” she said.
“We expect to have policy compromises on the issues we fought for, around the [proposed Macquarie Point] stadium, around protecting the environment, around budget repair so that money goes back into health and housing where it should be.
We haven’t heard any movement on this from Dean Winter and it’s on that basis that we would not be able to support a Dean Winter Labor government if that’s the motion moved next week in parliament.”
“There’s been nothing in that area at all, no meaningful movement on negotiations at all and time’s running out.”
“We want something up front. We’re not prepared to support a minority government that hasn’t provided us with a genuine statement of intent to compromise on issues that people have voted for the Greens to get outcomes on.
Greens still don’t have faith in Liberals
Dr Woodruff said the Greens, which voted for the June no-confidence motion in Premier Jeremy Rockliff that ultimately triggered last month’s snap state election, continued to have no faith in Mr Rockliff’s government.
When will Tasmanians finally know who will be in charge?
She denied the Greens were backing Mr Rockliff, instead arguing that Mr Winter had yet to make the case why he should be premier.
While Mr Winter has refused to compromise on policy, Mr Rockliff has announced a pair of policy concessions designed to win over the crossbench.
He abandoned a plan to open up to 40,000 hectares of previously protected forest up for logging, and announced that greyhound racing would be banned from 2029, after the current funding deed expires.
Mr Rockliff said on Tuesday he was taking “nothing for granted” ahead of the looming no-confidence vote.
“I will always work with and engage with the crossbench, to listen and to learn where they come from, where their passions lie,” he said.