Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader
Tasmanians who voted Labor at the last election on the basis of their position of principle on pokies will be wondering what, if anything, State Labor stands for in 2019.
Medical professionals and drug experts who were pleased with Labor’s policy on pill testing at festivals, will be wondering the same thing after Labor Leader, Rebecca White, told a statewide radio audience today she doesn’t personally support the Labor Party policy to introduce pill testing.
In a breathtaking display of wilful denial, Ms White is ignoring the evidence that pill testing saves lives and apparently won’t even support a trial to gather evidence at the local level.
Ms White also falsely told ABC radio today that the Parliamentary Inquiry into proposed changes to Tasmania’s gun laws had not sat or heard any evidence.
The Committee has sat on a number of occasions and heard evidence over two days of hearings.
It was during these hearings that the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association revealed Labor had received a copy of Liberals’ proposal to weaken gun laws weeks before polling day. Yet, Labor said nothing and it was up to the Greens to make a leaked copy of the changes public on the eve of the election.
Tasmanians would have gone to the polls more informed about the push to weaken gun laws if Labor hadn’t laid low on the issue.
During the bushfires that have devastated local communities and ancient wilderness, Labor was silent on the need to better prepare for the climate emergency humanity is facing.
There is silence on the push to privatize Tasmania’s public wilderness areas. Silence on the growing public unrest over plans to develop Halls Island at Lake Malbena.
Also silence on the planned cable car on kunanyi, despite evidence of a government manipulating the Parliamentary and planning system to favour a single developer.
Everywhere you look, there’s an area of important public policy on which Labor either has no meaningful position or is equivocal, or, as in the case of pokies, is now a complete betrayal of people who voted Labor at the last election because they believed the party actually stood for something.
What does Rebecca White’s Labor stand for in 2019?