‘Would be better off with a new leader’; business, mining bodies join calls for Premier to step down
‘He’s put his heart and soul into trying to get it right, but … for the state, we would be better off with a new leader.” Business and mining bodies are the latest to join calls for Premier Jeremy Rockliff to step down. Why they say it’s the best option.
Tasmania
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Despite being a “remarkable person”, Premier Jeremy Rockliff is facing pressure from the small business and mining sector to resign.
Small Business Council of Tasmania CEO Robert Mallett said although he believed Mr Rockliff had been “a very good Premier”, he was “disappointed” he had not stepped aside.
“Personally, I’m very disappointed for Jeremy because I know he’s put his heart and soul into trying to get it right, but at the end of the day, again, for the state, we would be better off with a new leader,” he said.
“He could have stepped down as Premier and the Parliamentary Liberal Party could have chosen another Premier.
“Now I suppose the Opposition could have played silly b..gers and gone for yet another no confidence motion in the next person and kept going like that.
“But on the other hand they probably wouldn’t have done that because they would have seen the public ructions.”
Mr Mallett, whose council represents 42,000 small businesses, said there were “some very experienced parliamentarians in the party” who could replace Mr Rockliff.
He said elections were “terrible for business”.
“It’s still going to a parliament that’s going to require a major party to have an arrangement with either Greens or independents, one way or the other.
“The likelihood these days of either of the two major parties getting a majority in their own right is very remote.
“The fact that we’ve just come through a very bruising federal election with all the name calling and the slinging matches and the television ads and the posters and all the c. p that goes with it, we just do not need another one.”
Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council CEO Ray Mostogl said an election would delay a decision on the Marinus Link and several business plans.
“Jeremy is a remarkable person and I think that’s a view that’s held by many people of all colours in politics, so this is not personal he’s a great guy,” he said.
“The point is they’ve been voted in, there’s policies that they’ve had election promises that they made and we need to let that run its course.
“It’s a terrible thing, but I think I think the public will judge Dean Winter accordingly for doing that to a remarkable person.”
But he said an early election would be detrimental to the mining sector.
“One of the big things that we’re all hanging out for is the decision made around Marinus and the renewables,” Mr Mostogl said.
“We’re starved in this state of energy.
“We’ve got businesses with big plans, but none of that can go ahead without that, so any delays to the timing of Marinus, which was supposed to be in the next four to six weeks, it just makes a very difficult project in itself even more difficult by delaying that.
“So we’ve lost that certainty with businesses because that energy supply becoming available is really critical to a lot of business plans.”
The clean energy sector has also warned that political instability threatens clean energy investment, with confidence wavering “in the absence of stable governance for major energy decarbonisation projects”.
Solstice Energy CEO Phaedra Deckart said uncertainty about local hydrogen projects during the recent federal election has raised concerns in the sector and events in the Tasmanian parliament added to those concerns.
“Political uncertainty kills investment,” she said.
“Clean fuel projects need confidence and clarity to proceed and without stability in parliament and government, the risk is that Tasmania misses its window to lead the nation in clean fuels and clean energy.”
Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Michael Bailey has not commented on Mr Rockliff’s future as he has a severe case of Covid.
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