Former Tasmanian premier Paul Lennon has thrown a spanner into the Liberal Party’s election campaign by registering the business name of their flagship insurance policy.
Lennon registered the name ‘TasInsure’ after the Liberals announced plans to establish a state-owned insurer as their centrepiece July 2 election promise.
After suspecting the policy lacked substance, Lennon discovered the business name hadn’t been registered despite the Liberals already setting up a TasInsure website and mock shopfront in Launceston.
“I know this because on July 7, I registered the business name through my company – to demonstrate that this is a cruel hoax, without question. You can’t make this stuff up,” Lennon told The Australian.
As the legal owner of the business name, Lennon told the newspaper he expects the Liberal Party to remove it from all promotional materials.
“Clearly, the business registration name is not theirs – it’s owned by my company, so I would expect they would be taking the signs down at the earliest opportunity,” he said.
The Liberal Party has hit back at what it calls “political game playing.”
“[Dean] Winter’s puppet master Paul Lennon has bought the company name Tasinsure in a shameful act of political game playing,” Liberal Braddon MP Felix Ellis said.
“Tasinsure isn’t owned by Mr Lennon or the Labor Party. It will be owned by the people of Tasmania,” Ellis said.
“Know this: a re-elected Liberal government will ensure Labor does not succeed in its attempt to block Tasinsure.”
