Michael Ferguson,Leader of the House
Current Labor leader Rebecca White still hasn’t said if she supports the agreement to deliver Tasmania’s return to the National Basketball League
Ms White used Facebook on the weekend to question the deal, despite her sports spokesman Mr O’Byrne warmly welcoming it on Friday, along with every other stakeholder.
When Ms White was asked where she stood on the NBL agreement yesterday, she remained silent – but in a strange twist, Labor’s leadership candidate Mr O’Byrne seemingly answered for her.
Ms White must clearly state whether she is for, or against, Tasmania having its own national basketball team.
A Tasmanian NBL team would increase the profile of basketball in our state, creating genuine pathways from grassroots to elite level sport, benefiting home-grown talent in players, coaching and administration and will generate huge social and economic benefits – especially for the people of the Clark electorate.
The ongoing rift in Labor’s caucus over the leadership has been simmering since Ms White abandoned thousands of Labor voters in Clark, and gave up a whole seat in Parliament, when she was embarrassingly unable to convince Madeleine Ogilvie to re-join Labor.
At the time, Mr O’Byrne firstly publicly welcomed [1] the impending return of Madeleine Ogilvie with open arms, but was then forced to clarify using Ms White’s line that it was ‘a matter for Ms Ogilvie and her family’.
Then as soon as he became the Shadow Treasurer, Mr O’Byrne used a newspaper column to push his leadership ambitions saying “I will do the hard work needed to put before Tasmanians a vision and plan for the State’s finances” [2] – but then a hastily corrected version appeared two days later in another newspaper, saying “I have the responsibility to ensure we do the hard work needed…” [3]
This tussle over the NBL agreement is just the latest episode in the drawn-out saga of Labor’s leadership chaos.
It clearly demonstrates that after six years in Opposition, with no long term plan and no costed alternative Budget, Labor is going nowhere and has nothing to offer Tasmanians other than criticism, dysfunction and disunity.
1 “She’s [Madeleine Ogilvie] been a long time member of the Labor Party, she’s got Labor Party heritage running through her veins you might say, in terms of her family members, so of course she would be welcome back,” David O’Byrne, ABC Radio, 27 August 2019)
2 Mercury Monday 14 October 2019
3 Advocate Wednesday 16 October 2019
