Labor member for Clark Ella Haddad’s outburst shows Labor’s only plan for Clark is to sow more division for cheap political headlines.
This is a weak attempt to distract from Labor’s own internal rancour which boiled over in some unseemly contributions from Labor MPs in Parliament last week, including abuse directed at Liberal Members of Parliament.
Ms Haddad should remember that Labor lost a seat in Clark at the last election, together with a record level of rejection by the voters.
The 2021 election result under Ms White was a humiliation for Labor – and it was most obvious in Clark, with Ms Haddad at the top of an uninspiring Labor ticket, where the Labor primary vote was virtually halved (21.99%, from 41.85% in 2018).
Under Ms White, Labor went backwards in every electorate, they won only one booth north of Kempton, and they copped a massive swing against them in their traditional base of Clark.
Perhaps Ms Haddad could explain whether she is part of the team described by her own Caucus colleague the Member for Braddon, Dr Broad, as “…a hard left factional group of power brokers that I believe have delivered three election losses in a row” (ABC radio, 17/5/21).
This is the sort of division and infighting which led Labor’s star recruit Dr Bastian Seidel to quit, citing “a toxic environment”.
Ms White couldn’t “end the infighting” like she promised she would, so mainland Labor had to send in the administrators.
And Ms White has been unable to deal with David O’Byrne’s future in the Labor Party, despite Mr O’Byrne reappearing on Labor’s website as “Labor Member for Franklin.”
Ms Haddad has proven it’s the same old Labor: still toxic and divided, still no plan for Tasmania, still out of touch with Tasmanians.
