Liberals claim Labor leader a secret fan of privatisations

The Liberals have branded Labor leader Dean Winter the state’s leading advocate of privatisation after uncovering decade-old comments they claim he made in favour of asset sales.

Liberal MP Felix Ellis speaks to the media at Parliament Square in Hobart on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.

The Liberals have branded Labor leader Dean Winter the state’s leading advocate of privatisation after uncovering decade-old comments they claim he made in favour of asset sales.

Liberal minister Felix Ellis said Mr Winter’s leadership was mortally wounded, his colleagues were leaking against him and that he was deep-down in favour of privatisation.

Labor — along with minor party and independent MPs — is opposed to the minority Liberal government’s plan for asset sales and parliament on Wednesday voted to set up a committee to examine it.

The government rehashed Mr Winter’s comments from radio appearance in which he questioned state ownership of Entura and TasNetworks in 2015.

“We are not in the space anymore, at least during this election cycle, where we can actually talk about what assets Tasmania should own. There is a whole bunch of areas including Entura but there is also for example, Tas Networks,” Mr Winter said.

Mr Ellis said the comments showed Mr Winter had for the last decade been one of the state’s leading asset sale boosters.

“It’s clear that he doesn’t know where he stands, or that he’ll say one thing to one group of Tasmanians and another thing to another group, it’s clear now, after running a scare campaign on privatisation, that Dean Winter has secretly been an advocate for privatisation for the better part of a decade.

“Look, it’s clear that his leadership is mortally wounded.

“He has a deep seated conviction around privatisation, but has done a dodgy deal with the unions to try and keep himself in leadership, jettisoned his principles and when Tasmanians are asking themselves, where does Mr Winter stand on anything, they’ll be thinking back to this debacle for his leadership.

Labor leader Dean Winter speaks to the media at Parliament Square in Hobart on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.

Mr Winter was untroubled by the attack.

“This is what the Liberals do when they’re under pressure,” he said.

“The Liberals have broken Tasmania’s budget. We are now heading towards $10bn worth of net debt.

“There was no net debt when they came to office, and so the only thing they can resort to now is personal attacks on others. I’m up for the fight.

“My position around asset sales has always been the same in that I don’t believe that this is the right thing for Tasmania.

“I think Tasmanians expect, for people in the position that I’m in, to make sure we do what’s in the best interest of the state.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff announced in his state of the state address last week that the government wanted to sell assets to fix the budget crisis. The plan appears doomed by a lack of support in the parliament.

“Tasmanians do not want to see their assets sold off by the Liberals because they wrecked the budget,” Mr Winter said.

“The Tasmanian Labor Party has been fighting against asset sales like the ones that liberals are undertaking for decades now, in fact, it was a Labor government in 1998 that stopped the Liberals from selling Hydro.”

Originally published as Liberals claim Labor leader a secret fan of privatisations