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”.<\/p>\n
In his first outing as leader, Mr Willie chose to hold a press conference at his childhood playground in Launceston.<\/p>\n
“This is a community that has helped shape who I am,” he said.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Josh Willie wants education, health and housing to be party priorities. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n
The new leader was quick to stick to his predecessor’s line that Labor is the “party of jobs and opportunities”.<\/p>\n
Who is Josh Willie, new leader of Tasmanian Labor<\/a><\/p>\n Joshua Barton Willie, a 41-year-old former primary school teacher, is the new leader of Tasmanian Labor \u2014 tasked with trying to engineer a party comeback after yet another election loss to the Liberals.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n It was something he kept coming back to throughout the presser, even saying the party needed to “differentiate ourselves from the Liberals”.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n However, he ruled out walking away from the party’s commitments to the greyhound racing <\/a>and salmon industries<\/a>., which the Liberals have made concessions on to appease the progressive crossbench.<\/p>\n “We won’t be walking away from our commitments, like the premier has,” Mr Willie said.<\/p>\n “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<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n What we learnt from the Macquarie Point stadium hearings<\/a><\/p>\n Tasmania’s Planning Commission is assessing the proposed Macquarie Point AFL stadium. Here’s what it heard during the past fortnight’s hearings.<\/p>\n Asked why the party needed a new leader, Mr Willie pointed to its recent election loss.<\/p>\n “We’ve just had one of the worst results in our history \u2026 it’s time to pause for reflection,” he said.<\/p>\n “There’s no short cut to government. We need to earn the trust of Tasmanians and we need to do the hard work.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Willie scathing of crossbench support of Liberals<\/p>\n Mr Willie would not be drawn on whether the first no-confidence motion was a mistake, simply saying there was “no shortcut to government”.<\/p>\n