Elise Archer,Liberal Member for Clark
Labor Leader Rebecca White must come clean as to whether she asked for this month’s ALP State Conference to be conveniently cancelled, to protect her embattled leadership.
The revelation that grassroots Labor party members were planning a no-confidence motion in her at the conference throws serious doubts on Ms White’s version of events of only two weeks ago.
At the time, Ms White refused to answer media questions as to whether she had personally requested the extraordinary Federal intervention, or had any say in the decision to abandon the State Conference.
Asked repeatedly about it, she was unable to comment except to say, over and over, that the decisions were taken by the ALP’s ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Executive and the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Secretary.
When asked about whether the State Conference was cancelled because of potentially embarrassing stoushes over events surrounding David O’Byrne and Mr McGregor, Ms White’s only response was:
“I don’t know, I don’t have a crystal ball, wish I did.” *
Rebecca White must now clear up these latest serious allegations from within her own bitterly-divided party.
Questions Ms White needs to answer include:
- Did she call on Labor’s ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Executive to cancel the ALP State Conference, to avoid an almighty brawl over her endangered leadership?
- Do all of Ms White’s caucus colleagues have confidence in her leadership, given the civil war raging in the party? Labor’s ‘star’ recruit Dr Seidel has already quit, citing a “toxic environment”.
- Have any of Ms White’s caucus colleagues signed the petition which is circulating amongst “angered party members” to overturn the cancellation of the ALP State Conference?
Labor is “a party that has no vision, no leadership, no plan” as one local newspaper editor put it, and having completely run out of ideas they have returned to type this week by again politicising the pandemic at every opportunity during the three-day lockdown.
After starting the process on Saturday and then sending out Ms Haddad, Dr Broad, Ms Dow and Ms O’Byrne in attack over each day of the lockdown, Ms White has joined in again as well today.
In contrast, the Government will continue to do everything we can to keep Tasmanians safe and secure, and to achieve our targets as we head towards re-opening our borders and a more normal way of living – with or without the support of Ms White and her bitterly divided Labor Party.
*Rebecca White, media conference, 6 October 2021
