Dr WOODRUFF – Premier, we understand your office contacted the Macquarie Point Development Corporation (MPDC) ahead of the release of the concert of your vanity project: the stadium. Is it true that your office asked the MPDC to change the musician depicted in the promotion because she looked too much like Taylor Swift? Is that because it would be embarrassing to imagine that we would actually be able to attract events like that? Does your office usually engage itself, does your Premier’s Office and the government media unit usually engage in the communications plans for the MPDC?
Dr WOODRUFF – Is this how you are managing things?
Mr ROCKLIFF – I am not really sure what you are trying to get at. I have made comments in the past about how good it would be to have Tay-Tay in Hobart, but people say that is not possible but possibly could be. Who knows? Tay Tay, one day, could be –
Dr WOODRUFF – My question is do you get involved in that sort of managing of the MPDC from your office?
Mr ROCKLIFF – Well, we work with various areas across government when it comes to matters and I am happy to be open and transparent, as I always am, about the stadium project and I cannot think of a single project that has had more scrutiny than Macquarie Point stadium precinct and the stadium itself. I am happy for people to come down and entertain Tasmanians. We are missing out now – and why would I not want a number of international and Australian acts to be playing in what will be a capacity of some 31,500 thousand people?
Dr WOODRUFF – Whenever we ask questions about failures of management by ministers in the health, education and housing portfolios, you always say that is a matter for those ministers, but you are actually micromanaging the work of the MPDC ahead of managing the output and the effectiveness of those other portfolios. Is that really your priority?
Mr ROCKLIFF – My priority is to do what I can for Tasmanians.
Dr WOODRUFF – It does not include people who are waiting for a hospital bed.
Mr ROCKLIFF – To provide the best possible services and, as my time as minister for Health, we increased the FTE in our public hospitals, we upgraded our hospitals or invested in our hospitals to be upgraded –
Dr WOODRUFF – What about Mr Jaensch in Children and Young People and Ashley, the children who are still languishing there and you are not engaging in that problem?
CHAIR – Dr Woodruff, the call has been given to Mr O’Byrne.
Dr WOODRUFF – Well, the Premier did not answer the question.
