Inside Bryan Green’s team

STATE political reporter BLAIR RICHARDS sits down with Labor Leader BRYAN GREEN ahead of the party’s state conference in Queenstown.

Opposition Leader Bryan Green, as a preview to the state labor conference this weekend in Queenstown. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

AHEAD of this weekend’s state Labor conference in Queenstown, state political reporter Blair Richards sits down with Opposition LeaderBryan Green to discuss the state of the party, its key priorities and his own future leading into the next election.

Q: You’ve been credited with re-engaging with rank and file members, and unions in particular. Are you too close to the union movement?

A: Not at all. I come from the union movement, obviously as a member of the AMWU my whole working life. I continue to be a member of the AMWU.

I realise the value of the union movement.

I have also been able to work as a minister in various cabinets over a long period of time, I’ve consulted with business about trying to ensure we take our state forward in a sensible and sustainable way.

Having said that I will always believe in the principles of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, and that people should not be exploited.

Q: You no longer live primarily in Braddon. Are you confident voters in your electorate will believe you can represent them properly from the other end of the state?

A: I’ve been a member in Braddon coming up to 18 years, Braddon is absolutely at the core of everything I do.

I think most people understand the circumstances, my own personal circumstances, but also the circumstances of being leader of the Labor Party.

Effectively you are the leader for the whole state, not Braddon alone. I am in the electorate a lot, as much as I possibly can be, and I do believe people will be voting for me on that basis.

Q: You had a reshuffle earlier this year. Your two Right wing members were given lower profile portfolios. Was that the Left sending a message?

A: They were not given lower profile portfolios. David Llewellyn was given the whole Resources portfolio which includes forestry.

The Labor Party wants to try to achieve a bipartisan position on forestry and he is the person to assist us in that process.

Madeleine Ogilvie was provided with a very important portfolio in Local Government which involves all the planning issues associated with taking our state forward.

I believe I’ve given them the best opportunities as opposed to the other way round.

I did not even consider that in my decision making.

Q: What do you make of Karelle Logan stepping down from the State Secretary race. Was she rolled by the unions?

A: Karelle put her name forward and entered a legitimate process, she decided to withdraw.

Karelle was amazingly successful in her short time, she knew when she went into the role it was a temporary position ... I’ve offered her a senior role here to ensure we use her expertise in a way that stands us in the good stead for the state election.

Q: Premier Will Hodgman said on the weekend his political opponents do not have a monopoly on issues like health, education and supporting the vulnerable. Is he right?

A: He is trying to suggest he wants to out-Labor Labor to win the next state election.

I’ll be standing up at our state conference proud of the fact that I represent a strong, united and progressive party.

On the other hand you have Will Hodgman standing up in front of his party, with an extreme Right-wing agenda which manifested itself in the motions that were actually put forward.The great victory from the conference was to get rid of Safe Schools.

Q: Labor has been critical of the Liberals’ plan to extend all Tasmanian high schools to year 12 and lower the school starting age. What would Labor do instead to lift educational outcomes?

A: Throughout this debate people seem to have forgotten about the whole issue of attainment: What young people can get out of their education?

We would take a bottom up approach to setting a 20 year agenda for education.

We admitted we had not got it completely correct in the past.

One of the great failings was making decisions on the run.

You can’t suggest to the Tasmanian people you can have year 12 in every school in Tasmania, that it’s going to be affordable and still have a college system operating in parallel.

Q: On health reform, what would Labor do that the Liberals are not currently doing to improve the health of Tasmanians?

A: The fact is it’s the Labor Party that has always championed a public health system.

The way both the conservative Federal Government and Health Minister Michael Ferguson are portraying themselves is they say they are the friend of public health as well.

A good example of how the Liberals are undermining that is the way they approach the Mersey. They said leading up to the election they would continue the funding for the Mersey Hospital.

We thought at the time it was amazingly cute that they offer to fund the Mersey beyond the election date but only for a short period of time after that.

We would make sure we worked in partnership with our Commonwealth colleagues to get the appropriate funding to allow us to continue to grow the public health system in a sustainable way.

Q: The Labor Party is holding its state conference in Queenstown this weekend. What will Labor do to help regional areas like the West Coast which are in need of more jobs and opportunities?

A: It’s no accident we are having our conference in Queenstown.

I made that decision and I’m really pleased the party has supported me. I think it sends an important message that the Labor Party is about ensuring regional Tasmania is listened to.

In the North-East when it was struggling, (the former government) worked with that community to establish significant irrigation projects to allow other industries to continue to flourish, such as the dairy industry. In the North-West we did exactly the same.

On the West Coast we have worked closely with the council to understand what their priorities are and we will be making some announcements about how we can work with them.

Q: Looking forward, can Labor win the next state election?

A: Labor has and always will be in a position to be progressive and take people with us, and that’s why I do believe we can win the next election without any doubt.

We’ve been working hard as a united team over the last two-and-a-half years and it is starting to pay dividends because people are wanting to consider standing for us. I firmly believe if we run a good solid campaign with good candidates that the electorate has demonstrated during the federal campaign it is prepared to vote Labor.

Q: Will you still be Labor leader when Tasmanians go to the polls in March 2018?

A: Yes I will be.

Q: If the Liberals do not win enough seats to form a majority government what will you do?

A: The question is always asked of me but it’s more about what the Premier would do because the Governor will go to the Premier, and ask whether he has confidence on the floor of the house to be able to ensure supply. It will be the Premier’s headache in the first place. We have already said there’s been rule changes in the Labor Party that ensures it’s not a decision made by the caucus just here in Parliament House.

Originally published as Inside Bryan Green’s team