A vote for independents is not wasted
State parliament is failing the general public and making the filthy rich even wealthier
Adversarial politics and achieving good public policy
Inquiry to be held over stadium plan
Mum in labour told she can't give birth in Burnie: MLC
Legislative Council, Wednesday 1 November 2023
Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, we are here to consider a referral of the Government's Macquarie Point proposal, also known as the stadium, for assessment as a Project of State Significance. Our role here is to either vote to approve this or reject this referral.
As the Leader said in her contribution, it is not about the merits of the project as such. The act is fairly silent on what basis a member might choose to vote for or against the referral. The act does lay out a number of possible criteria that would warrant an assessment as a Project of State Significance and in section 16 of the act it talks about meeting at least two of the following attributes. I will go through those attributes as I think they are relevant:
Legislative Council, Tuesday 31 October 2023
Mr President, I rise on adjournment to speak of an urgent and important matter.
Mr President - five women in Australia have been killed in the last ten days – this is one every two days in Australia.
We know that on average one woman a week is killed by a current or intimate partner – this is one every two days!
We know that tragically, still after years of raising awareness about the devastating toll on women and their families noting that still. In the last six days alone there have been four such deaths we are aware of.
Mr President, organisation Counting Dead Women Australia and the Facebook group Destroy the Joint are a group of people dedicated to campaign for national action on violence against women including researchers who seek to report on all violent deaths of women in Australia.
ALL state governments are facing sustainability problems.
Tasmania is no exception.
The instability of the government increases the unwillingness to face reality.
Rather than have honest discussions about our plight our political leaders prefer Plan B, create a distraction and pretend it's part of the solution.
You won't find a better diversion than talk about a Tasmanian AFL side requiring a stadium on a contentious site.
Tasmanians have a right to know all the facts on energy project, writes Ruth Forrest.
As usual, when it comes to the Marinus Link project there are more questions than answers.
Barely four weeks ago Premier Jeremy Rockliff drew a line in the sand and told his federal counterparts Tasmania couldn't afford two Marinus cables, certainly not "at any price".
Four weeks later how about one cable?
Are we to believe that in less than a month the number-crunchers have revised all their plans, budgets and models and decided one cable will do the job? Exactly what job is that?
The proposed Marinus Link is not the only path to our electricity salvation.
Just who is controlling the energy narrative?
Just who is running the place these days?
Many would expect the government and Minister for Energy Guy Barnett to control the narrative, however, it's become part of Tasmanian folklore that Hydro always pulls the strings.
Guy Barnett will need to explain how the interconnector will help deliver services for the state, writes Ruth Forrest
The proposed $4bn Marinus interconnector will foreshadow a second wave of hydro industrialisation, will lower power prices, and fill the government's coffers to the brim so we can house everyone in need, provide timely health care to all and fix all the state's current woes.
So we are told.