Peter Gutwein,Premier
The Greens plan released today is a strong endorsement of the Tasmanian Government’s COVID-19 border reopening plan.
Their plan largely copies the range of Government strategies that are currently in place.
It is very pleasing that after all their reckless and hysterical fearmongering, demands for borders to close and lockdowns to occur, it now appears that the Greens support the borders being open, business activity occurring and events taking place.
The Greens should now apologise for undermining our plan which was based on Public Health advice.
While we welcome the Greens endorsement of many of the Public Health strategies already adopted by the Tasmanian Government, it is disappointing to see other areas in which the Greens’ plan is misleading and inaccurate.
Astonishingly, against nationally accepted Public Health advice that the best place for our students is back at our schools, the Greens have called for Tasmanian primary school students to be kept away from the classroom and effectively in a lockdown in their homes for potentially more than two months.
Meanwhile, the Labor Party has proved once again it has nothing to offer as the State’s supposed opposition.
Their call for a politically stacked Parliamentary enquiry is yet another desperate attempt for relevance and a headline when they have nothing of value to contribute to the betterment of Tasmania.
It also appears that that Independent MP Kristie Johnston is bereft of any ideas of her own after being missing in action since early December, now joining with Labor calling for Parliament to be recalled when this has already been clearly ruled out.
Instead of playing politics, the Government has been working side by side with Tasmanians through this transition period.
The Government has stood with Public Health more than 20 times since the border has reopened to answer hundreds of questions and our Ministers continue to make daily appearances to provide updates and answer any questions.
Tasmanians are transitioning to living with COVID-19 and whilst this is not without its challenges, we opened our borders with the best Public Health advice and one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
We will continue to take our advice from the experts at Public Health – not politicians desperately seeking relevance.
