Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – I thank the Jacqui Lambie Network for bringing this on today. It is interesting to reflect on what leadership means. I will talk from the perspective of the Leader of the Tasmanian Greens.
We are here to get Greens outcomes. It is the manner in which we do that that I think is important. Leadership is not only about the outcomes, it is about the process of getting there, because along the way you can create a lot of chaos or you can create a lot of harmony and good. It is certainly the focus of the Greens to look at drawing the community together and having genuine conversations with Tasmanians about the ideas that we have and our policy positions and what we think are good ways forward for lutruwita/Tasmania.
It is about having a contest of genuine ideas and it is definitely about working for solutions. One thing we heard constantly on the doors in the last election was that people are sick of politicians who are rock-throwing and not trying to find solutions, so it is in that space that it is really disappointing to see the desperation, really, of the leader of the Labor Party to stoke instability and find problems where they are not there. What I am hearing is a rock-throwing form of opposition rather than real scrutiny, a real grappling with the complexity of ideas and prosecuting the argument of the Labor Party themselves.
That is what the Greens are here to do. We are here to be clear with Tasmanians about what we stand for and what we want to achieve on their behalf, so we will be delivering an alternative budget. We want Tasmanians to know that these are the things we talked to you about on the doors in the election and this is how we would fund them if we were in government. These are our priorities. These are the things that we would not fund and these are the things that we would fund. We have heard you.
We know that the core issues for people living in Tasmania today are cost of living and housing, so we have positions which we will fund in our alternative budget to show Tasmanians that there is a different way of doing things. It is not what the Liberals have done for the last decade. We can move on from a desperate housing crisis with the approach that the Greens have to dealing with short-stay accommodation and regulating that to making sure that people do not get kicked out of rental places without due cause, to make sure there are controls on rents, to make sure that there is a properly funded health system and that we have paramedics and nurses where we need them so that we have patient flow in hospitals and not bed block, and to make sure that we have environmental laws that protect this beautiful state of lutruwita/ Tasmania.
That is the point that we come at politics from. We are not playing politics; we are working on critical issues for the state. We are deeply concerned at the narrative that the Premier has been developing, and allowing to develop amongst his ministers, of attacking people in Tasmania who are concerned about the state of the environment and the damage and harm that has been caused by state-owned businesses and a lack of strong laws that do not prevent developments in inappropriate places.
He is encouraging or allowing to occur a new narrative of lawfare which is about othering a group of people who are concerned in the community, not taking their fears seriously, not taking their reality of what they are witnessing and the changes they are observing seriously and calling them environmentalists and NIMBYists. This is about othering groups of people instead of grappling with the issues, respecting the diversity of views in the state and challenging the things that are wrong. It is about trying to create a narrative which is frankly hateful and hugely divisive. Let us call it for what it is. It is all about votes in Braddon. It is all about ideology and it is sacrificing ancient middens to four-wheel drives in the Tarkine and it is sacrificing some of our most fantastic values. The Greens will stand up for Tasmanians and make sure we do so with respect and promote unity.
