Premier Jeremy Rockliff says keeping nurses, teachers and police paid is his top priority as Tasmania hurtles towards another state election following a no-confidence vote that has plunged the state into political chaos.
The embattled Liberal leader lost a knife-edge parliamentary vote on Thursday, with Speaker Michelle O’Byrne casting the deciding ballot in a 17-17 deadlock to support Labor’s motion of no confidence.
But rather than immediately seeking an audience with Governor Barbara Baker to dissolve parliament, Rockliff said he would delay calling the election until essential funding bills pass through both houses next week.
“It’s been quite a day for all of us and for all Tasmanians and a day that I did not want to come to at this point, but it has,” Rockliff told reporters outside Government House on Thursday night.
“The most important item on my agenda is to ensure that the government can support our hard-working nurses, teachers, police, community safety officers.”
The premier’s decision to prioritise the appropriation supply bills reflects the precarious timing of the political crisis, coming just seven days after the state budget was handed down but before it has been formally passed.
Rockliff said Labor leader Dean Winter had taken a “wrecking ball” to parliament during budget week and that only after securing funding would he take the final step toward an election. He said parliament will next sit on Tuesday.
“The number one thing on my mind, without any doubt and enormous degree of certainty, is to ensure that the government is able to take an appropriation supply bill through both houses of parliament,” he said.
Leader of Government Business Eric Abetz warned that public servants face the prospect of missing pay packets if the emergency bills fail.
“This is the sort of disruption that Dean Winter and the Greens have caused,” Abetz told Pulse.
“If I was a public servant, every single one of them should be saying, shame on Dean Winter and Labor, shame on Rosalie Woodruff and the Greens.”
The political turmoil means Tasmania is heading for its second state election in just over a year, with voters likely to return to the polls next month.
