Peter Gutwein,Premier
Labor’s decision to ignore Public Health advice on the return to racing timeframe is irresponsible, dangerous and amounts to rank hypocrisy.
The Tasmanian Government is managing a health crisis that in a short period of time has already killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and sadly 13 Tasmanians as well. That is why it is critical our State’s expert Public Health advice is taken every step of the way.
Ms White’s call for a return to racing ahead of the 13 June date proposed by Public Health experts is shameless politicking, but more importantly dangerous.
A second wave of the virus would be devastating for Tasmania as we try to slowly open up our economy, and Ms White knows this, yet she is prepared to ignore expert Public Health advice.
Ms White has been briefed on this process at every step of the way, but now for rank political gain has chosen instead to ignore that expert health advice.
It was Labor’s Rebecca White, who days before racing was temporarily halted in Tasmania to prevent regional travel risks wanted to shut down the entire State when she said:
“Closing all non-essential services and putting Tasmanian into full lockdown is the clear course of action.”
And it was Labor’s Rebecca White who stated last Friday that:
“The Labor Party has welcomed clearer timeframes for Tasmania’s recovery process from the COVID-19 crisis”, and that “a cautious approach to easing restrictions was the best model going forward.”
Ms White is having a bet each way. It’s the sort of irresponsible behaviour that I would expect from David O’Byrne who started the politicking last week, but not from the leader of a major party.
I can only surmise that Ms White was more concerned by the press that Mr O’Byrne was generating, and to shore up her own leadership has decided to drop any pretext of being interested in the health of Tasmanians.
We know this has been a challenging period for the racing industry and that is why we provided an unprecedented $2 million per month package to support the racing industry.
We are pleased Public Health officials have now agreed to a way forward to enable race trials to commence from Monday 18 May ahead of a racing resumption date of 13 June.
We have maintained we need a steady and cautious approach to recovery.
Labor should stop putting politics before people.
