Labor flirts with Greens, as Premier Rocky appears slippery on salmon

The opposition is not ruling out governing with Greens support in Tasmania, as Jeremy Rockliff is quizzed over claims he discussed a salmon farm moratorium in a bid to save his job.

Tasmanian Opposition Leader Dean Winter, left, and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff, right. Pictures: News Corp

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Tasmania’s Labor leader has not ruled out governing with Greens support – albeit without a formal deal – as polls continue to point to a hung parliament at Saturday’s state election.

Dean Winter was quizzed repeatedly at Wednesday’s leaders’ debate about whether he would govern with the support of the Greens.

While ruling out a formal ­alliance or power-sharing deal, the Labor leader appeared to be open to a no-strings offer of support from the minor party.

“We won’t do deal with the Greens,” Mr Winter told the Sky News / Mercury debate, pointing out he had already – before the election was called – rejected a Greens offer of support to govern.

“If I’d taken that deal, I’d be premier today,” Mr Winter said. “At the last election, there was an opportunity for Labor to do a deal with the Greens and we didn’t.

“And we won’t do one in the ­future … We will work with sensible independents towards a Labor agenda.”

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff during the televised debate. Picture: Linda Higginson

When pressed, he did not rule out accepting Greens support after this election, at which neither major party appears likely to win a majority. “Well, you can’t not ­accept or accept confidence and supply,” he said.

Asked by Sky News chief anchor Kieran Gilbert whether he would allow the Greens to “prop up your government” in such a scenario, Mr Winter said: “I’ll work with the parliament that Tasmanians give me and I’ll do that out of respect, and I’ll work with sensible independents towards delivering a Labor agenda.

“But you won’t find us doing a deal with the Greens. You won’t find us sacrificing any element of Labor’s agenda, which is to support safe, secure, well-paid jobs.”

The Liberals, who have governed since 2014, had 14 seats in the last 35-seat House of Assembly, Labor 10, the Greens five, independents five and the Jacqui Lambie Network one.

Most recent polling – by Pulse Tasmania, DemosAU earlier this week – suggests a surge for independents on 20.3 per cent, with the Liberals on 34.9 per cent to Labor’s 24.7, the Greens 15.6 and the ­Nationals 2.7. That would deliver a very similar parliament to the one Premier Jeremy Rockliff ended prematurely by calling a snap election, with pundits suggesting such a vote on Saturday would return 13-14 Liberals, 9-10 Labor, 6-7 Greens, at least 4-6 independents, and potentially a ­Nationals MP.

Leader of the opposition Dean Winter Picture: Linda Higginson

Mr Rockliff called the early election after his partyroom decided not to replace him following a vote of no confidence in him passed by Labor, the Greens and three crossbenchers on June 5.

However, the leaders’ debate heard claims Mr Rockliff tried to head off that no-confidence motion by discussing a proposal for a moratorium on new salmon farms with independent Craig Garland.

Mr Winter asked Mr Rockliff whether he had held “secret discussions” with Mr Garland to sell out salmon jobs “to desperately cling to power”.

The Premier did not directly answer the question. “What is clear is that Mr Garland and I will never agree to shutting down the salmon industry,” he said.

“I have spoken to all independents over the course of the last 15 months. Sensible, measured conversations, trying to ensure that we’re listening to people’s views.”

Pushed on whether a salmon moratorium was discussed, he said only “We have discussed many things, including salmon”.

Mr Garland later told The ­Australian he did not recall a moratorium being discussed at the pre-no-confidence motion talks with Mr Rockliff.

He did raise salmon industry regulation and taxation, he said, but “nothing was offered”, “no horse trading” occurred. “There was no moratorium talked about – I just highlighted where we were at with the management of the salmon industry and the lack of regulation and the lack of ability to tax it properly,” Mr Garland said.

However, he said the Liberals had offered him policy concessions at a meeting about a week before the no-­confidence motion to address his growing dissatisfaction with the debt-laden state budget.

This included a promise to ­address his concerns about sustainability of the calamari industry: “They came to me at the last minute throwing a bag of lollies, thinking I’d jump on board and think ‘Oh, great, they’re going to attend to my calamari fishery’. My view was I was being played.”