Media

Media appearances and press coverage featuring Ruth Forrest.

ABC Mornings – Public Accounts Committee
ABC Mornings – Public Accounts Committee

You can listen to my interview with Leon Compton about this week’s PAC hearings here: [...]Read More... from ABC Mornings – Public Accounts Committee

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SPECIAL INTEREST MATTERS – Filmmaker Kirsten Slemint
SPECIAL INTEREST MATTERS – Filmmaker Kirsten Slemint

Today I spoke in Parliament about Tasmanian science and natural history filmmaker, Kirsten Slemint. You can watch my speech here: [...]Read More... from SPECIAL INTEREST MATTERS – Filmmaker Kirsten Slemint

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House rules, and how game is rigged
House rules, and how game is rigged

Intergenerational Inequity Isn’t a Mystery – It’s a Design Feature Every few months, another report laments the widening gulf between young and old. Commentators wring their hands about falling home…

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Mental health in political life vital to democracy
Mental health in political life vital to democracy

The wellbeing of our elected representatives should not be hidden, if they are struggling then decision-making suffers. Politics is demanding work. Not just intellectually, but emotionally, psychologically, and personally. The…

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Why our Budget needs to confront reality, not continue to pretend we’re living in fantasy land
Why our Budget needs to confront reality, not continue to pretend we’re living in fantasy land

Fiscal Fiction and Waiting for a Miracle For years Tasmania has been governed by a budget process that seems designed not to confront reality but to defer it. The latest…

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Six Months In, Hydro’s “Subdued Year” Looks More Like a Storm Warning
Six Months In, Hydro’s “Subdued Year” Looks More Like a Storm Warning

When Hydro Tasmania’s Chair quietly warned of a “subdued year ahead” at last year’s GBE scrutiny hearings, most people probably heard it as corporate modesty – the kind of cautious…

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ABC Drive – 10 February 2026
ABC Drive – 10 February 2026

You can listen to my latest interview on ABC Drive here: [...]Read More... from ABC Drive – 10 February 2026

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Productivity – what are we actually measuring?
Productivity – what are we actually measuring?

Every few months, Tasmanian workers are treated to a familiar sermon. It usually comes from a business lobby, an employer group, or a CEO who has never staffed a ward,…

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Hydro Tasmania: What the Numbers Show – A multi-chapter analysis of operating performance, liquidity, structural risks, and public myths.
Hydro Tasmania: What the Numbers Show – A multi-chapter analysis of operating performance, liquidity, structural risks, and public myths.

Now that Chapter 18 has been posted, the Hydro Explainer series has reached the end of its journey – at least for now. My thanks to everyone who has stayed…

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Chapter 18: Conclusion – A Century of Hydro, and the Next One
Chapter 18: Conclusion – A Century of Hydro, and the Next One

This final chapter looks to the future and the challenges we must be open and honest about. It looks to the future of our incredibly important government business, Hydro Tasmania…

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Chapter 16: The Fiscal Stakes for Tasmania
Chapter 16: The Fiscal Stakes for Tasmania

This chapter will consider what is at stake for the fiscal future of Tasmania – when we consider the current energy sector and how it has and will operate into…

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Chapter 15 – Governance, Secrecy, and the WoSBC: Tasmania’s Architecture of Unaccountability
Chapter 15 – Governance, Secrecy, and the WoSBC: Tasmania’s Architecture of Unaccountability

This post examines the Tasmanian Government’s and Hydro Tasmania’s governance environment – the Whole of State Business Case (WoSBC) redactions, the opaque annual report, the refusal to disclose basic financial…

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