{"id":615306,"date":"2026-04-18T15:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615306\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:39:13","slug":"labor-plots-political-comeback-in-tasmania-at-first-conference-since-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615306\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor plots political comeback in Tasmania at first conference since 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tasmanian Labor has held its first state conference in seven years, with debates on housing and education dominating day one.<\/p>\n

It is the first time since 2019 that the party has faced rank and file members at such a forum, with three election losses in the intervening period.<\/p>\n

Addressing the crowd, special guest Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt spoke about the significance of the conference’s return.<\/p>\n

“When I heard people talking about the ‘seven year itch’, I thought it was about couples growing apart, but you’ve decided to get back together after seven years,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s quite an impressive thing.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Federal Minister for Environment and Water, Murray Watt (left), delivered a speech at the conference. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)<\/p>\n

The speech had the effect of juxtaposing the success of Federal Labor in Tasmania <\/a>with the state party’s 12-year period in the political wilderness.<\/p>\n

“Tasmania wins when we work together. United, in pursuit of common goals,” Mr Watt said.<\/p>\n

“It was that unity and a clear focus on the needs of working people that delivered us a bumper crop of new representatives to the parliamentary Labor caucus.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian parliament passes industrial manslaughter laws <\/a><\/p>\n

Tasmania is the last state to pass a “long and overdue safety reform” that allows both corporations and individuals to be charged for negligence or breach of duty if they cause a death at work.<\/p>\n

“Even in opposition we’ve seen Tasmanian Labor drive changes on voluntary assisted dying, industrial manslaughter, political donations reform and many other areas.”<\/p>\n

Mr Watt then introduced the party’s third leader in just two years, Josh Willie.<\/p>\n

After arriving in the room surrounded by his family, Mr Willie was enthusiastic about the return of the conference.<\/p>\n

“I can feel what that means to our movement here in this room,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a renewed sense that after everything we’ve been through, the Labor Party is ready to move forward again.<\/p>\n

“Conference is back \u2014 and, more importantly, Labor is back.”\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Willie says recent years had been “challenging” but had made the party more resilient. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)<\/p>\n

Mr Willie took over the leadership in August following last year’s bruising election loss<\/a> \u2014 Labor’s worst result in over a century.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the conference, he acknowledged the party had been “tested with tough times”.<\/p>\n

Labor has ‘shock coming’, Tasmanian party elders warn<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of a state conference, a former Tasmanian Labor premier and treasurer lash the party’s performance, telling the ABC the opposition’s policies are indistinguishable from the Liberals’.<\/p>\n

“Those years have been challenging, but they have only made us more resilient,” Mr Willie said.<\/p>\n

“We are stronger for what we have been through together. “<\/p>\n

The former teacher spoke of his passion for education, and touched on his plan to extend kindergarten to five days a week.<\/p>\n

He was critical of plans at TasTAFE to scrap courses and cut staff, in pursuit of budget repair.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Tasmanians deserve a government that understands TAFE is not a private company chasing profits,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a public institution, with a public purpose. Its job is to serve Tasmanians.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Labor MPs Anita Dow, Dean Winter, and Shane Broad in attendance at the conference. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)<\/p>\n

The Australian Education Union’s Tasmanian branch president David Genford warned about the consequences of cutting TasTAFE courses.<\/p>\n

“TasTAFE is not just an education institution, it’s a pillar of our community,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The planned $45 million cuts to TasTAFE are not just numbers, they represent an attack on our community’s future.”<\/p>\n

Debates on education, housing<\/p>\n

The motions passed at the conference focused on traditional Labor issues, with unions calling for support of workers at Liberty Bell Bay, and of education facility attendants.<\/p>\n

Members of Young Labor criticised the state party’s opposition to a levy on short-term accommodation.<\/p>\n

The state government has just introduced a bill to put a 5 per cent tax on all short-stay accommodation, to be paid by the visitor \u2014 a policy that has been opposed by Tasmanian Labor.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Labor Senator Richard Dowling. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)<\/p>\n

The government’s policy would raise money for first home buyers, but Labor’s Battery Point branch called for a higher levy, at 7.5 per cent, to instead raise money for social housing.<\/p>\n

While the branch later amended its own motion to remove the call for the higher levy, recognising it would not get support, delegate Heidi Heck was critical of Labor’s position.<\/p>\n

“Our party has spent the last 100 years fighting for the working class, and this current position is in direct contradiction to those values,” Ms Heck told the room.<\/p>\n

“The tourism industry is booming in Tasmania, and I am glad of that, but I think that the residents of Tasmania deserve their fair share of that boom.<\/p>\n

Tasmania’s proposed short-stay levy ‘unjust’, tourism industry argues<\/a><\/p>\n

The tourism industry remains opposed to a 5 per cent levy on short-stay accommodation that the Tasmanian government has promised to implement.<\/p>\n

“They shouldn’t be disadvantaged by this economic boom, they should be the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

“That’s what a levy would achieve. It injects money into public and social housing, and encourages home owners to put their properties on the long-term rental market which is what we desperately need.”<\/p>\n

But members also condemned the short-stay levy in its current state, arguing it “does nothing material to help with housing supply or the current housing crisis”.<\/p>\n

They passed a motion to support a 12-month freeze on new approvals for short-stay accommodation listings “until housing supply and rental availability have demonstrably recovered”, as well as a policy of 0 per cent deposits for first home buyers.<\/p>\n

\"five<\/p>\n

Protesters opposed to Tasmania’s greyhound racing industry gathered near the conference. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)<\/p>\n

Members were greeted by anti-greyhound racing and anti-salmon farm campaigners at the door.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside, one said she wanted Labor to change its stance on salmon farming.<\/p>\n

“Get salmon farming out of our waterways \u2014 the science is clear, the damage is huge,” she said.<\/p>\n

None of the motions from the conference are binding.<\/p>\n

The event continues tomorrow, with motions on introducing pill testing and Palestine on the agenda.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Environmental protesters called for action on the salmon industry. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tasmanian Labor has held its first state conference in seven years, with debates on housing and education dominating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5731,64,63,12639,298701,12804,215757,179612,298698,13404,44,59319,298700,53137,298699],"class_list":["post-615306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alp","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-labor-party","tag-greyhound-racing-tasmania","tag-hobart","tag-josh-willie","tag-labor-conference","tag-labor-leader-josh-willie","tag-murray-watt","tag-news","tag-salmon-industry","tag-state-conference","tag-tasmanian-labor","tag-tasmanian-parliament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}