Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, I am shocked and ashamed for Labor on their behalf that they would take this position. Scrutiny was the last fig leaf Labor had left in standing up for Tasmanians and demonstrating that they are capable of acting as the opposition party. They have absolutely derogated their responsibility. This is a minimum standard. It’s true we cannot make amendments to the order but we can ask questions. It’s almost like Labor would be afraid of the answers the government might give to the questions from the Greens and other people of the crossbench. This order will grant powers to the Treasurer to make all decisions, override any piece of regulation, override a condition, override the panel that would be established. What an inconvenient truth for Labor to be exposed to the reality of the order they are intent on supporting.
This order will utterly transform not just the landscape of the centre of Hobart – not just the beauty of that place, the space that should be an Aboriginal reconciliation park, the space that should be protecting the reverence of the Cenotaph, but it will transform our financial landscape and our capacity to fund essential services for decades to come. The planning commission has said it will be $50 million a year servicing a debt for three decades. We need to understand how this order will be enacted. We need to have the opportunity to ask questions. It’s a minimum requirement for us as legislators. We have so few opportunities to pull apart the 157-page order and the 236 pages of the planning commission’s report that recommended against proceeding.
We need to understand what this government will do in the name of the people of Tasmania with more than $2 billion of our money over the next decade in that most central part of Hobart. I cannot believe the member for Clark, Ms Haddad, has made the case that Labor will throw their hands up and not support this. Shame on Labor.
