Labor leader Josh Willie won’t say whether Braddon MP Shane Broad’s social media videos are undermining his leadership, as Broad says voters feel “Labor is not listening” and he is “fighting inside the Labor Party for change”.
Since October 12, Broad has posted a series of Facebook videos about why voters are turning to One Nation and what Labor needs to do to win government.
Labor sits on 22% in the latest DemosAU poll, conducted in September, one point ahead of One Nation.
In an October 13 video, Broad said an earlier post about One Nation’s rise had drawn more than 300 comments in less than 24 hours.
“To summarise, I think you could say that people are saying it’s not that One Nation is great and has all the answers, but that Labor is not listening,” he said.
“Well, I am listening and that’s why I put the post up. Look, I haven’t always won the debates, but I’ll keep fighting.”
Asked today whether Broad was undermining his leadership, Willie said: “Look, members of my team are active on social media. They share views. We’re focused on Tasmanians.”
He instead accused Premier Jeremy Rockliff of participating in a culture war over a school’s Christmas event.
“I think we need to lift the standard in Tasmania, not lower it,” he said. “I think it’s important that we don’t have a race to the bottom through culture wars.”
Asked whether Labor could still win a majority, Willie said: “I’m working very hard every day to return Labor to government. That’s my goal. It always has been.”
In an October 14 video, Broad called himself “a bit of an outsider in the Labor Party” with politics that were “pretty middle of the road”.
“I’m not sort of your usual Labor person, like I grew up on a farm. I haven’t really come up through the union movement,” he said.
“I’ve been fighting inside the Labor Party for change and I’ll keep doing that.”
The next day, he said his background as a scientist meant he wanted to “solve problems”.
“The only problem is we’re in opposition. That’s why I really want to be in government, so I can make the changes,” he said.
On Monday, Broad called for Labor to aim for majority government.
“Parliament has been chaos probably for the last five or six years,” he said.
“We need a new direction in the state and it is not about being blackmailed by the minority of supporters for Greens and the Independents, it’s about actually making a Labor Party that can win a majority of seats in the parliament so that we can get stuff done.”
Broad has said he increased his use of social media after last year’s election to change the way he communicates.
In August, he publicly backed a cable car on kunanyi/Mt Wellington, with a Labor spokesperson saying the party would assess “any proposals on their merits”.
His October 14 video was posted the same day Willie was repeatedly asked if he was still chasing a 30% primary vote by Christmas, a target he reportedly set MPs in July.
“I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with this, but my target is to return Labor to government,” Willie said, adding he would remain leader if Labor fell short.
Labor has polled between 21% and 24% in every state voter intention poll this year, below the 25.9% it won at last year’s election, its worst Tasmanian result.
Willie took the leadership unopposed in August last year, replacing Dean Winter.
On the Poll Position podcast last Friday, co-host Alex Johnston said there would not have been “any questions about leadership if Shane Broad had not posted that video”.
Co-host Brad Stansfield, a former Liberal chief of staff, asked whether Broad had “his leadership baton sort of poking out of his backpack”.
Labor MP Jen Butler said yesterday Broad was a “fabulous colleague”.
“He does a great job, but he has different opinions sometimes to other members of our team. And that’s part of being in the Tasmanian Labor Party,” she said.
Asked whether Broad fully supported Willie, she said: “I can’t speak for Shane Broad, but as far as I’m aware Josh Willie has the full support of the Tasmanian PLP.”
Labor MP Jess Greene said today: “There’s no one inside the PLP talking about a change in leadership. The only people that are talking about it is the media, quite frankly.”
Liberal MP Bridget Archer said on Monday there was “no doubt” Broad was “actively undermining the leadership of Mr Willie at this point”.
“It has been a common theme of his social media in recent times and we see this across the party as well,” she said.
