Tasmania politics in turmoil
Opinion: This is not in the interests of the people of Tasmania.
Opinion: Yes, I certainly do. What an election. I like that way. It's my choice. It's not their choice who does what. I'd want to change the government.
Opinion: I think they've been disgraceful.
Opinion: I'd like to see a change of government, but I'd like to see the stadium continue.
Opinion: The amount of money that would be swallowed up in a stadium would fund our health, our decrepit health system for months. That's it, money gone.
Opinion: If we go to an election, the one thing I'd really say is I hope the Premier is not part of that election. He was the one that had the no confidence vote against them. He should have the dignity to resign.
Opinion: My vote would support the candidate who doesn't support the stadium. I feel we've got far greater pressing needs at the moment. I've been on the public housing list for two years and there's over 5,000 people waiting and it's growing daily.
Samantha Donovan: For the latest on the political situation in Tasmania, I spoke to the ABC's state political reporter, Adam Langenberg. Adam, is another election in Tasmania now inevitable?
Adam Langenberg: Not inevitable, Sam, but everyone in the political sphere here says it's the most likely scenario. People I've been speaking to today say, you know, 75 or 80% likelihood that we head to an election. Of course, there are other scenarios that can play out. The governor can ask another Liberal MP to try and form government. That's something that the party room has not backed in. They say they'll back Jeremy Rockliff to the hilt and it's either an election or the governor tries to ask Labor to form minority government. That's something the Greens here have said they're open to working with Labor, but Labor leader Dean Winter, who moved this no confidence motion, he says under no circumstances will Labor govern with the Greens. So, it's a standoff and means that everyone thinks the most likely scenario is that election, which won't be called until at least Tuesday, if it does happen.
Samantha Donovan: Adam, why is Tuesday the significant day?
Adam Langenberg: Well, that's because Tasmanian Parliament needs to be recalled so a supply bill can be passed. The Tasmanian Parliament was in the middle of debating the budget, which hasn't passed. It means the Tasmanian public servants won't be paid after August. What that means is if there's going to be an election, there won't be a supply bill passed until well after that. So, there needed to be a mechanism to get them paid in the short term and that's what the supply bill is. And then after that, the Premier will go to the governor and ask for an early election.
Samantha Donovan: Do you think the Labor leader, Dean Winter, fully appreciated what he was setting off with this no confidence motion?
Adam Langenberg: That he didn't is an argument that's been prosecuted by the Liberals all week. They say they were just trying to change the Liberal leader and that's not something that they would tolerate. But Labor insists they meant what they did. They knew there were lots of scenarios. Maybe their preferred one might have been for Jeremy Rockliff just to have resigned. Well, they say they knew when they moved this motion, the consequences of it, and that it could mean that we head to an election and they were OK with that. Dean Winter has said repeatedly that he can't sit idly by and let Premier Jeremy Rockliff ruin the state. That's his argument. That debt and deficit are heading the wrong way in Tasmania, that the government can't manage major infrastructure projects, that it's going to sell off government businesses and the state can't afford it. So, Dean Winter says he knew full well what he was doing and now it's up to Tasmanians.
Samantha Donovan: Adam, if there is another election, do you think Tasmanian voters are going to punish Labor for sending them back to the polls?
Adam Langenberg: Well, Dean Winter's got five weeks or six weeks, depending on how long things take to get underway, to convince Tasmanians that it was the fault of the Premier that we're heading here. This is an argument that he's been making already, that the Premier didn't have the supply and confidence agreements he needed to be able to govern and Labor was just doing what any good opposition should do and holding the government to account. That's an argument he's going to have to make to try and win over Tasmanians. Now, we know that some of the party's biggest vote winners, historically, might not contest this time around. Rebecca White in Lyons has already gone to the federal parliament. It looks like Speaker Michelle O'Byrne in Bass might not contest the election. There's two big vote winners for Labor out of the picture, if that eventuates. So they've got their work cut out for them in growing from 10 seats that they hold currently, let alone getting to the 18 required for majority government. But, yeah, a big task in selling to Tasmanians exactly why they've done what they've done. That's something that's sort of got lost in the noise of the last two days because it's just truly remarkable to see a Premier ousted in the way that he has been.
Samantha Donovan: The backers and fans of the long-awaited Tassie AFL club are worried it might fold because of this economic turmoil, even before it really gets off the ground. What's the worst-case political scenario for the Tassie Devils club?
Adam Langenberg: I think the club will be hoping that there isn't a minority situation where the only way that one of the major parties can form government is in a coalition with an anti-stadium group of independents or the Greens. Because the first thing on their list when they're looking to form government will be, please don't build a stadium in Hobart. That's a reality that the club is really, really concerned about. Now, Labor have already said that they will not drop the stadium and not drop their support for the club going forward. And the Liberals have said the same thing. But in the harsh reality of post-election, when you need to trade to form power, what happens? And that's a real concern for football fans and the football club. And only time will tell exactly how that works out.
Samantha Donovan: Adam Langenberg is the ABC's state political reporter in Tasmania.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Sydney families flee due to staggering average cost of houses
It's the huge cost of buying a home in Sydney that's sending families fleeing Australia's largest city and as interest rates tumble, it's a problem that's about to become even worse. According to the latest predictions, the median house price in Sydney is forecast to jump by another 7 per cent in 2025-26, to a staggering $1.83 million. That's nearly twice the value of the average home in Australia, which has surpassed $1 million for the first time, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Those figures mean that the typical house price in Sydney will rise by $112,000, which is more than the average full-time worker earns before tax ($103,000). By comparison, the median house price in Melbourne is tipped to rise by 6 per cent, to $1.1 million. However, that's after two years of downturns in the Victorian market. As business leaders, economists and political leaders gather in Canberra for Treasurer Jim Chalmer's economic roundtable, it's a question that is at the heart of the push to overhaul planning approvals to build more houses and even consider new options including modular homes. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was hit with the big question on Monday morning, conceding it is a huge problem. 'By mid-next year the median house price in Sydney, according to forecasts, is expected to hit $1.8 million,'' ABC host James Glenday said. 'The median full-time worker earns about $90,000. How can people under the age of 40 get excited about productivity and making the economy efficient when they can't afford to buy a home?.' Senator Gallagher said the problem was longstanding. 'That is exactly the discussion that needs to be had around housing and for us it is around the fact that we haven't built enough houses for decades in this country and the fact we have to look at how we speed that up and how we offer a range of housing options for people,'' she said. 'Whether that be from looking at how we deal with the supported housing sector or affordable housing all the way to home ownership. 'We went to the election with policies around that. There is more work we have to do. It takes too long to build a house. That adds to the cost of housing. We have to make sure we are tackling these issues, otherwise these problems will continue.' For many Australians, it's a case of voting with their feet. According to the Muval's Family Relocation Report — based on over 41,000 family moves across Australia over the past six years — there are now more families leaving Sydney than moving there. Despite huge flows of migrants, Sydney City and Inner South with a netâ€'negative family migration of 0.18, followed by Melbourne Inner (0.23), Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (0.32), Parramatta (0.42) and Inner West (0.45). 'Greater Sydney has experienced the highest loss of families, with a ratio of just 0.31, meaning that for every family that moved in, more than three have moved out,' the report revealed. 'This may reflect the city's soaring cost of living, rising property prices, and a growing desire among families for more space and less congestion.' All of the regions where more families are moving out than moving in were in Sydney, Melbourne and the ACT. 'Meanwhile, affordability pressures are driving major shifts in ownership: nearly 17 per cent of families are going from owner-occupier to renter, while just 6.3 per cent are moving in the opposite direction — a stark reminder of how tough homeownership is becoming for many.' Last week, a leaked Treasury document revealed a number of recommended outcomes for the federal government's productivity round table. The pre-written list, prepared for cabinet, revealed advice from the Treasury to pause changes to the National Construction Code. It also recommends measures to speed up housing approvals, including a national artificial intelligence plan to cut environmental red tape. A suite of reforms is designed to clear a backlog of 30,000 housing approvals currently being assessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity (EPBC) Act. The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has urged Treasurer Jim Chalmers to take urgent action. The HIA's submission to Treasury highlighted the taxes and charges on a typical house and land package in Sydney can now exceed $500,000 adding huge imposts on family mortgages. 'The Treasurer's roundtable presents a critical opportunity to address the barriers that are holding back new housing supply. You cannot talk about productivity, economic growth or improving living standards without discussing housing,' HIA managing director Jocelyn Martin said. 'Red tape, regulation and delay are adding enormous costs to the delivery of new homes. If we want to see real reform, we need to boost productivity in our industry, cut the burden of unnecessary building and planning rules, and start making it easier to build homes.'
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
Kalgoorlie remembers 'maverick' federal MP Graeme Campbell
Former member for the West Australian federal seat of Kalgoorlie Graeme Campbell has died, aged 86. His family posted on social media that he died early Saturday morning at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. Mr Campbell entered politics as a member of the Labor Party after a career as a pastoralist on the remote Nullarbor Plain. He went on to serve as the member for Kalgoorlie for 18 years, and is remembered by contemporaries as a "colourful" political maverick. Originally from Oxfordshire in England, Mr Campbell's family emigrated to Australia when he was a child. He grew up in South Australia and went on to establish Kybo Station, a remote pastoral property on the sparse Nullarbor, with his brother Rod Campbell. It was at Kybo he met his wife Michele Lelievre, now Campbell, a French woman who had stopped at the station while on a trip around Australia. Ms Campbell told the ABC in 2018 she had heard about the Campbell brothers long before heading towards the Nullarbor Plain. "I looked at him and thought, 'Definitely, I will stay,' so that was how I met him." The couple later married and moved to Kalgoorlie, where Mr Campbell worked in mining before turning his attention to politics. Mr Campbell joined the Labor Party in 1980, and was elected as the federal member for Kalgoorlie, a position he held for 17 years and 11 months. He was known for his pro-mining and anti-immigration views. In 1988, he challenged then prime minister Paul Keating and crossed the floor in opposition to the government's plan to remove company tax exemptions from gold miners. Former member for O'Connor, Tony Crook, said the move cemented Mr Campbell as a man of the people. Mr Campbell was disendorsed by the Labor Party for his outspoken views, and resigned from the party just prior to the 1996 election. He went on to run as an independent and won, retaining his seat for another two years. In a statement to the ABC, Mr Campbell's family said winning the 1996 election as an independent was one of his proudest moments. "Graeme found special connection to the people of regional Western Australia. "He was deeply honoured to be able to represent his people as the federal member for the seat of Kalgoorlie." Mr Crook said Mr Campbell's "maverick" style left an incredible legacy in Kalgoorlie politics. "For Graeme to leave [the Labor Party] and win the federal seat as an independent was huge," he said. "That was why I crossed the floor as many times as I did [in my own career]." Member for Kalgoorlie Ali Kent agreed Mr Campbell's "maverick" label was warranted. "He liked not ever conforming, he always liked to have his own way of doing things." Ms Kent said Mr Campbell's passion for local issues continued after he left politics. "Right to the end, he would be at the voting booths … he would always want to have a conversation with you," she said. Boulder resident and former chair of the Goldfields Transport Board, Doug Daws, first met Mr Campbell when he was in the Transport Workers Union and the pair came to loggerheads. Mr Daws said despite their disagreements, they went on to become good friends. "Graham was a great arguer for better things for the Goldfields … and sometimes it wasn't easy for him to do that," he said. He remembered fondly when Mr Campbell was meant to be promoting a prospective emu leather and meat farm near Wiluna. "He came to a meeting with a pair of these [emu leather] shoes on and he told everybody … they were the most uncomfortable shoes he's ever worn in his life," Mr Daws said. Mr Daws said Mr Campbell would be remembered for his tenacity and passion for the Goldfields. "He picked up causes and fought for them valiantly, sometimes against overwhelming odds … and his efforts are well recorded in the Hansard of federal parliament," he said. "He was a very able representative of this district [and] he was a hell of a good bloke. "He'll be sadly missed." Mr Campbell leaves behind his wife Michele and two sons, Ainsley and Leyland, who said they were overwhelmed with the outpouring of community sentiment. "We are honoured and thankful to have had him as our husband and father," the family statement read.
ABC News
7 hours ago
- ABC News
Are most of the NT's landmark DV inquest recommendations already in place, as the government says?
Two years ago the Northern Territory coroner began an inquiry into the domestic violence deaths of four Aboriginal women, with her findings and recommendations handed down in November. At the last parliamentary sittings, the NT government provided its long-awaited formal response to the inquiry, with Prevention of Domestic Violence Minister Robyn Cahill stating the 35 recommendations were "uninspiring" and "failed so dismally to hit the mark". Ms Cahill's comments received significant backlash from the sector and legal associations, who labelled them "hurtful" and "undermining of the independence" of the coroner. As another series of coronial inquests into domestic violence deaths begins this month in Darwin and Alice Springs — which the NT coroner previously flagged as "an excellent opportunity" to review the government's response — the question remains: What has been the government's progress on implementing the recommendations? Of the coroner's 35 recommendations, the NT government has accepted 21 of them in full and 11 in principle. In the government's tabled response to the recommendations, it stated that for the majority of those accepted, funding for the programs was either already available under existing plans or had been recently assigned as part of the 2025-26 budget. For many of those it accepted in principle, the government said fully implementing them would be "subject to" finding the necessary funding and resourcing, or undertaking significant work to create a "whole new model of operation". During her speech to parliament, Ms Cahill claimed that "24 of the 35 recommendations related to programs or processes already in place". But that assertion is disputed by frontline sector workers, including the chief executive of the Women's Safety Services of Central Australia, Larissa Ellis, who has called such a claim "disingenuous at best". One of the recommendations in dispute is recommendation 7, which relates to an NT-wide rollout of the co-responder model, where police and Department of Children and Families staff work together to support victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. In her report, the coroner called for the co-responder model, which is already being trialled in Alice Springs, to be funded, evaluated and implemented across the NT. Ms Cahill claims that model is already "in place". However, less than two weeks before the last parliamentary sittings, a Department of Children and Families spokesperson told the ABC in a statement that the co-responder model had yet to be expanded across the NT. The full list of locations for the program's expansion was also only announced in parliament late last month. Ms Ellis also says the government has "skipped the monitoring and evaluation" of the Alice Springs co-responder pilot, which would have allowed the sector to consider "the lessons that we could learn [and] the challenges that we have experienced here in Alice Springs". Recommendation 11 is another the government claims is already in place, while sector workers disagree. The coroner called for the Prevent, Assist, Respond training (PARt) domestic violence program to be rolled out to "all current NT police officers, auxiliaries and new recruits, as well as [to emergency call centre] staff" and its specific funding. Ms Ellis says: "I would debate that that has been fully implemented". "The NT government has not funded that initiative, that is funded through philanthropic avenues. And it is temporary funding," she says. Multiple sector workers have also told the ABC that despite Ms Cahill stating recommendation 17— which calls for the replication of Alice Springs's specialist domestic, family and sexual violence court in other regions — is "in place", there is in fact no specialist court outside of Alice Springs. The government did not support three of the recommendations: The government's refusal to establish a peak DFSV body has been particularly contentious. Ms Cahill says there is no need for a peak body because that role is already fulfilled by a government-funded "domestic, family and sexual violence officer" position at the Northern Territory Council of Social Services. But Ms Ellis says this position doesn't equate to a peak body. "We're the only jurisdiction without a domestic and family violence peak, [and] we are the jurisdiction with the highest rates of domestic and family violence across the country," she says. "The domestic and family violence sector in the Northern Territory is in a terrible position, where we are advocating and arguing with our funders. "That places us in really precarious situation, because if we advocate too strongly we risk our funding."
