Independent MP David O’Byrne has hit back at Labor leader Dean Winter, rejecting claims he was a Liberal ‘yes man’ in the last parliament.
Winter told Local Radio on Thursday that O’Byrne had “signed up to a deal with the Liberals of confidence and supply and frankly he backed them every single day”.
“He never varied,” Winter said, when asked why he hadn’t spoken to O’Byrne, a former Labor MP, in three years.
But O’Byrne said Winter was being dishonest about his parliamentary record.
“I understand that Mr Winter is under pressure in an election campaign but dishonestly lashing out at others on the crossbench is not the answer,” O’Byrne said.
The Franklin independent said his confidence and supply arrangement was specifically with Premier Jeremy Rockliff.
“My agreement for confidence and supply was Mr Rockliff alone, not the Liberal party,” O’Byrne said. He described the deal as “highly conditional”.
“Believe me, offering confidence to a Liberal premier was not on my bingo card given my life-long involvement with the labour movement.”
“I would have gladly provided the same commitment to former Labor leader Rebecca White had Labor chosen to seek to form government.”
Under the agreement, O’Byrne committed to supporting supply bills but was free to vote however he liked on everything else, which he said he did “many times, consistent with my values”.
He pointed to his role in pushing out former Treasurer Michael Ferguson from cabinet over the Spirit of Tasmania ferries debacle.
“When it came to the Liberals’ plan to privatise state-owned companies, it was pressure from myself and others on the crossbench that caused this policy to be abandoned,” he said.
“I pursued the government over issues such as public transport, public housing, health, the Bruny Island ferry failings and the bad behaviour of GBEs.”
O’Byrne also defended his decision to vote against Labor’s no-confidence motion that triggered the early election, saying it wasn’t the solution to the state’s problems.
“Labor’s move came one month after the party admonished the Greens in parliament for moving a no confidence motion, warning it would be irresponsible to risk another an election,” he said.
“Yet here we are having an early election no-one wanted or needed.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff, in his final speech to parliament before the no-confidence vote, called O’Byrne a “statesman”.
Rockliff thanked him for standing by him “through thick and thin”.
“You will never resile from your Labor values and I respect that,” he said.
“You have worked with a Liberal premier and delivered some real outcomes for your constituency and the people that have always respected and voted for you.”
