Labor Leader Rebecca White and her colleagues are recklessly fear-mongering about the Greens’ plan to attempt to amend the State Budget to remove stadium funding.
Over the past few days, Ms White, Dean Winter, and Josh Willie have all claimed that amending the Budget would mean publicly employed workers would not be paid.
This is patently untrue, and Labor know it. They are deliberately spreading falsehoods about the Greens’ attempts to defund the stadium to try to cover up for their own internal uncertainty about what to do next.
Rather than playing grubby politics, Labor should join with the Greens in trying to do everything possible to stop this billion-dollar stadium from going ahead, and save current and future generations of Tasmanians from carrying a massive debt.
Here are the facts. When the Greens move to amend the Budget there are three possibilities for what happens next.
If our amendment fails, the Budget will still then pass.
If our amendment passes with the support of the Liberals, the Budget will still pass and the Parliament will continue as normal.
If our amendment passes without the support of the Liberals, the Budget will still pass – but the House will have effectively expressed no confidence in the Rockliff Government. Convention suggests the Premier would need to resign.
The Greens will not be blocking the Budget. We’ll vote to pass it regardless of what happens to our stadium amendment.
Rebecca White is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Tasmanians, but the truth is the supply of funds for government services – including paying our critical workers – will continue as normal no matter what.
And it will be up to Jeremy Rockliff as to whether he wants to risk losing the support of the House – and potentially his government – just so he can deliver Gill McLachlan his billion-dollar bauble.
