At around 8pm last night, in one of the last parliamentary acts before the shield of a six-week break, Premier Jeremy Rockliff finally confirmed that his dodgy AFL deal didn’t go before cabinet.
He was forced by the Parliament to produce a list of documents pertaining to cabinet deliberations about the stadium which contained one glaring omission – the AFL deal.
It’s becoming more and more obvious the Premier’s cabinet is split over the stadium, so you can see why he didn’t show them the deal.
It’s such a bad deal he was clearly worried it would have been shot down, or even worse for the Premier, that he would lose more members of his party.
The reality is this deal exposes Tasmania to so much financial risk that it was reckless for him to make a captain’s call on it. Despite this, we now know he forged ahead anyway.
Confirmation the deal didn’t go through cabinet also shines a spotlight on the performance of a number of Ministers, including the Premier, in Budget Estimates earlier this month.
On multiple occasions Ministers refused to answer questions regarding the deal, using the excuse it was cabinet-in-confidence. Now we know the deal didn’t go through cabinet, this excuse is about as flimsy as this minority government’s future.
After ten years in office, Premier Rockliff’s minority government is out of people, ideas and excuses.
The Premier can run, but he can’t hide, and Parliament will hold him accountable.
Josh Willie MLC
Shadow Minister for Sport
