Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Deputy Speaker, that is a terrible thing that I just heard from Ms Haddad. I sincerely feel awful that she is receiving an email like that.
Mr Winter – The words are ‘I’m sorry.’
DEPUTY SPEAKER – Mr Winter.
Dr WOODRUFF – That is a horrendous way to speak to anyone, let alone to speak to a member of parliament who is doing her job representing her community. The Greens abhor language like that and we obviously find that utterly offensive. We strongly support Ms Haddad in taking any measures that she can to protect herself from that sort of behaviour.
Ms Rosol was standing here before – and this matter of public importance has diverted widely from the issue that we were talking about – and she was reading out Ms Haddad’s words, not anything to do with the other person that Ms Haddad referred to, because I do not know anything about that. I have never heard that and this is about what Ms Haddad said.
Ms Haddad – Then why share it with the media?
Mr Winter – That is a poor apology.
Ms Haddad – It is just politics. Why share a threatening email like that.
Mr Winter – Rolling around in the dirt.
Members interjecting.
DEPUTY SPEAKER – Members on my left. I will say, Dr Woodruff, that yes, we have drifted a long way from the topic but it was the Greens spokesperson who stood up first who diverted the MPI topic to where we are now.
Dr WOODRUFF – The MPI topic that Ms Rosol was referring to was about the risk to the state from making an extremely dangerous decision to approve a stadium that will cost us nearly $2 billion within the next 10 years and what we have here is Ms Haddad who was reading ‑
Mr Winter – The word is ‘sorry.’ Outrageous.
Members interjecting.
DEPUTY SPEAKER – Members on my left. I understand the tensions in here, but Dr Woodruff has the call.
Dr WOODRUFF – Ms Haddad sent an email with the words from the Labor Party saying Macquarie Point will not work.
Members interjecting.
Dr WOODRUFF – Our support is not for Macquarie Point because Macquarie Point just will not work, and this is what we were talking about. We were talking about the Labor Party’s position and the Labor Party’s failure to do the basics of scrutinising such a massive, concerning debt that the government is looking at taking on for the state. They have one job, the most important job, which is to scrutinise the accounts of the government, scrutinise the decisions that are being made. The Leader of the Opposition, Dean Winter, has announced that he will be allowing the government to do whatever they want, at any cost, for that stadium at Macquarie Point to be built. Labor has said time and again that they foreshadowed that they would vote for legislation to pass the stadium at Macquarie Point.
Mr Winter – And you said you will not, no matter what.
Dr WOODRUFF – What we have here is words from a member of the Labor Party saying –
A member – You are facilitating someone who has conducted abusive behaviour.
Dr WOODRUFF – that her party’s position is that Macquarie Point will not work, ‘Our support is not for Macquarie Point because it just won’t work.’
That is what we are talking about here today. Labor needs to explain to Tasmanians exactly what their position on the stadium is because, at the last count, they have changed five times.
Ms Haddad – We are not in government; it is up to the Premier to show that he can deliver what he promised.
Dr WOODRUFF – They changed from having stickers on their cars saying ‘no stadium’. They had Ms White, the leader of the Labor Party before the election, promising Tasmanians that they would work to renegotiate the deal. They had Dean Winter saying, when he became the leader after the state election and after the May elections, that his position was changing and he was going to lead a party that would support the stadium. They would scrutinise it and make sure there was a cap of $375 million –
Ms Haddad – That is right. That was the Premier’s promise, and he won the election.
Dr WOODRUFF – The Macquarie Point Stadium.
Ms Haddad – No, ‘a stadium’ is what we said.
Dr WOODRUFF – Then we had Josh Willie, on behalf of Labor, announcing: ‘Hands off, the government can do whatever it wants, it can cost anything, it can be bungled, it can break every planning law in Tasmania and Labor will support it.’ Now, we hear Labor does not support the Macquarie Point Stadium; they support ‘a stadium’.
A member – No, you are facilitating a person who was abusive.
Dr WOODRUFF – Obviously, they support stadium 2.0, the stadium that is Paul Lennon’s stadium. Of course they do. What game are they playing here?
Members interjecting.
Ms Haddad – What game are you playing, sharing emails like that with the media?
Dr WOODRUFF – They are playing a game with billions of dollars of Tasmanians’ money when they should be focusing on people’s lives –
The SPEAKER – Members on my left.
Dr WOODRUFF – and putting that money into health and housing infrastructure.
Ms Haddad – An appalling way to behave.
DEPUTY SPEAKER – Ms Haddad.
Dr WOODRUFF – It is shameful abrogation of their duty.
Ms Haddad – What you have done is shameful.
Members interjecting.
Mr Winter – Jeez, this is your lowest point ever. Your absolute lowest point.
Dr WOODRUFF – It should be about health and housing, scrutinising the Budget and looking ahead at a $2 billion debt. That is what Labor should be doing.
Time expired.
