Former Greens leader Cassy O'Connor has criticised the Labor party's support of logging and has promised to hold the major parties to account on environmental and probity issues if she is elected to the Legislative Council this Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms O'Connor is contesting the inner-city upper house seat of Hobart, after she resigned from the House of Assembly last year.
Ms O'Connor's election in Hobart would give the Greens a significant sway over state legislation passing through the 15-member chamber for the first time.
Although the Legislative Council was traditionally seen as an independents' chamber of review, Ms O'Connor said it was critical that the Greens gained a presence there to hold the major parties to account.
"The Liberal and Labor parties have a substantial voting bloc in the [upper] house," she said.
"Yes, we need independents in there, but but right now more than ever, because of the dominance of the major parties in the upper house, we need a Green in there to hold the line."
Ms O'Connor is a strong contender for the seat, which encompasses much of the territory of Clark (renamed from Denison) - the electorate she dominated between 2008 and 2023.
At the 2021 state election, she was the electorate's top vote-winner, garnering 9469 first-preference votes, ahead of Liberal heavyweight Elise Archer.
But in Saturday's poll, she faces stiff competition from high-profile contenders including Tasmanian Australian of the year 2023 John Kamara, who is running for Labor, and Hobart property developer and activist John Kelly.
At a press briefing on Sunday with over a dozen supporters standing behind her, she said she would not take victory in the seat for granted.
"This seat is definitely winnable for the Greens but we haven't won a single-member electorate before," she said.
"And we know that we have to just work flat out between now and polling day because every vote will count."
She said if elected, her top priorities would be environmental issues, along with housing and rental affordability, the AFL stadium, the cost of healthcare, as well as affordable public transport.
She also promised to take Labor and the Liberals to task over political campaigning and donations reform.
She said Hobart constituents had a "deep distrust and disappointment" of Labor.
"The fact that they so rarely act in the public interest and they're beholden to their donors," she said of Labor.
When asked, Ms O'Connor also singled out Labor leader Dean Winter for criticism.
"It's just so backwards to in one of your first acts as leader say you want to join in with the Liberals in flattening and burning some of the most beautiful carbon rich forests on the planet," she said.
"We know now that the Liberal and Labour parties are in lockstep on industrial forestry, logging, fish farming and privatising our public lands.
"We need a Green in the upper house to challenge that mindset."
Labor disputed the Greens claim that it is in 'lockstep' with the Liberals on forest policy.
Dean Winter said: ""The Greens have always been anti-jobs and it's not surprising they are trying to bring that agenda to the upper house too.
"Tasmania's sustainable aquaculture and forestry industries support thousands of jobs across the state and Labor is not ashamed to stand up for them."
