Peter Gutwein,Premier
Sarah Courtney has provided great service to Tasmania during the last eight years as a Member of Parliament and as a Minister, and I wish her all the very best for her future endeavours.
Sarah has been at the helm of some significant achievements during her time as Minister and as a Member of Parliament.
She was the Health Minister when COVID-19 first hit, working closely alongside me in responding to this once in a lifetime pandemic.
Together we stood side by side at daily press conferences – explaining difficult decisions that dealt with challenging and unforeseen circumstances to ensure the community was kept informed.
As Minister, Sarah also oversaw the commissioning of K-Block at the Royal Hobart Hospital – a significant achievement, especially in the context of a global pandemic.
As the Minister for Skills, Training and Workforce Growth, Sarah was instrumental in passing the TasTAFE Bill last year.
This reform will set TasTAFE up for the future as a more responsive and effective training provider that is more closely aligned to what our businesses and students need.
As the Minister for Children and Youth, Sarah has been driving the transition for the Ashley Youth Detention Centre to a new therapeutic model and she has worked closely with the disability sector to ensure that students will, in a Covid environment, continue to have the access they need to an education.
And as the Member for Bass, Sarah took on the role of taking the Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation through the House of Assembly.
This was something very important to her as she felt very strongly about the right of individual Tasmanians to make informed decisions about their own lives.
I thank Sarah for her commitment and dedication to her work as a Minister in the Tasmanian Parliament, and for her advocacy for the people of Bass as local Member of Parliament.
I will consider the longer term make-up of the Cabinet over the next week and in the meantime the current acting ministers will be sworn in tomorrow to enable them to continue in the roles they have been undertaking while Sarah was on leave.
