THERE comes a time when you have to decide: keep calling out failures from the sidelines, or step forward to help fix them.
After two decades of parliamentary service, I have chosen the latter. If the Governor invites Dean Winter to form a minority Labor government, I have agreed to serve as Treasurer and will remain an Independent member. Independence matters. It’s an acknowledgment that tribal politics has failed Tasmania. The state’s fiscal crisis demands collaboration, evidence-based solutions, and honest accounting – not spin, secrecy, and point-scoring.
Tasmania’s finances are in deep trouble. Health, education, justice, and public safety cannot be sustained without urgent repair to the budget. The Eslake Review gave us a chance for a cross-party reset. Instead, the government dismissed it, blaming COVID-19 and the compensation for victims of sexual abuse, while ignoring structural flaws.
Ten of its 11 fiscal targets were unattainable – the 11th so low it barely counts as an achievement. At the same time, the 2024-25 Revised Estimates Report omitted more than $1 billion in future health spending, masking the real size of the deficit and debt.
Treasury’s Pre-Election Financial Outlook later revealed net debt would triple to $13 billion within three years and warned it was “mathematically impossible” to grow our way out. If the government knew this – and it did – then telling voters there was a path to surplus was simply untrue.
This pattern is familiar. The AFL stadium deal was signed without Treasury or Cabinet approval. The Marinus Link deal went ahead without public release of its business case.
Were these even discussed in Cabinet, or were they simply waved through by a single minister? The people expect an honest and transparent approach to decision-making.
If appointed Treasurer, I will bring the same transparency, diligence, and willingness to this role that I have shown as Chair of Parliamentary Committees.
I will work with all members to rebuild trust and restore the state’s finances.
Desperate times call for a bold response. Rather than stay on the sidelines, I decided to take the opportunity to step up – to help chart a sustainable, honest, and transparent way forward for Tasmania.
Our state’s future depends on it.
The Advocate, 13 August 2025