New Labor Leader Josh Willie says his party needs to “pause and reflect” on its historically bad election result and “do the hard work to earn Tasmanians’ trust”.
In his first outing as leader, Mr Willie chose to hold a press conference at his childhood playground in Launceston.
“This is a community that has helped shape who I am,” he said.
“I know that I’ve had a very supportive family and I’ve been very fortunate, but I know not all Tasmanians have and I know that they need support from their government.”
Josh Willie wants education, health and housing to be party priorities. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
The new leader was quick to stick to his predecessor’s line that Labor is the “party of jobs and opportunities”.
Who is Josh Willie, new leader of Tasmanian Labor
However, he was careful to point out that it was “also the party of education and health and housing”, areas that have received little mention over the past 16 months.
“The Labor Party under my leadership will be focused on jobs and opportunity, but also the things that Tasmanians care about, those core Labor issues of healthcare, cost of living, housing and education,” he said.
It was something he kept coming back to throughout the presser, even saying the party needed to “differentiate ourselves from the Liberals”.
“Tasmanian Labor has always supported traditional industries and that won’t change, but through my leadership you’ll see us talking more broadly across the economy,” he said.
“Jobs in the services industry, for example, in education and healthcare, talking about the Tasmanian success story that is tourism and hospitality or new industries like start-up and tech.”
However, he ruled out walking away from the party’s commitments to the greyhound racing and salmon industries., which the Liberals have made concessions on to appease the progressive crossbench.
“We won’t be walking away from our commitments, like the premier has,” Mr Willie said.
“There is a very poor process that has played out here. The premier’s word is worth nothing.”Hobart stadium to stay within PoSS process
As for the stadium, Labor remains committed to the project, however Mr Willie said it should stick with the Project of State Significance (PoSS) process.
What we learnt from the Macquarie Point stadium hearings
Asked why the party needed a new leader, Mr Willie pointed to its recent election loss.
“We’ve just had one of the worst results in our history … it’s time to pause for reflection,” he said.
“There’s no short cut to government. We need to earn the trust of Tasmanians and we need to do the hard work.
“We need to spend time across the regions of Tasmania, listening to the Tasmanians that might not have voted for us this time and understand why.”
Willie scathing of crossbench support of Liberals
Mr Willie would not be drawn on whether the first no-confidence motion was a mistake, simply saying there was “no shortcut to government”.
Horrible night for Tasmanian Labor
He gave that same answer when asked if he would rule out another no-confidence motion in the future.
During his recent no-confidence speech, Mr Willie was scathing of the crossbench for its decision to side with the Liberal government.
Since becoming leader, he said a number of crossbench members had reached out to wish him luck and that they were looking forward to working with him.
“They could’ve chosen a Labor government, but they chose a Liberal government and I think they do need to take some responsibility for that moving forward,” he said.
“That said, I’m open to collaboration where we can. There’s some obvious areas where we have things in common with the crossbench.
“We want to see greater transparency and integrity in government. I’m open to working with the crossbench where we can come to agreement.”
Dean Winter lost a no-confidence motion in Tasmania’s parliament by a vote of 24-10 on Tuesday. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
The ABC understands many in the Labor Party caucus supported Dean Winter to remain as leader.
However, if it had come to a leadership ballot, Mr Willie, who comes from the left, would likely have won.
As the rank and file membership, which is dominated by the left, would have had a vote.
At the end of the day, Mr Winter decided not to contest the leadership.
Mr Willie described yesterday as a “respectful discussion”, saying he had been “elected unopposed” as Labor leader.
“I have the support of the Labor Party movement to take our party forward,” he said.
Mr Willie denied reports that members of the right faction had threatened to quit and sit on the crossbench during the meeting yesterday.