Minister Madeleine Ogilvie’s desperate attempts to justify her UTAS backflip aren’t fooling anyone.

After being humiliated last week, the Minister has doubled-down on her efforts to pretend she’s stayed true to her original position with a flimsy op-ed in today’s Mercury.

If it looks like a backflip and sounds like a backflip, it probably is a backflip. Just ask the stakeholders who were happy last week, but are now accusing the Liberals of massive betrayal.

Labor’s position is clear. The Liberals’ UTAS policy was never anything more than a cynical, deceitful policy designed to win votes in Clark. Throughout this debate we’ve opposed the restrictive legislation because we want to see improved educational opportunities and more housing built, and so we support the new proposed amendments.

The fact that Education Minister Jo Palmer has clearly done everything in her power to stay as far away as possible from Ogilvie’s UTAS legislation tells you everything you need to know.

It is now abundantly clear that Minister Ogilvie will say whatever she thinks she needs to say to be elected, leaving her colleagues to fix her mess. This is yet more proof that Tasmanians can’t trust the Rockliff minority government.

Sarah Lovell MLC
Shadow Minister for Education & Early Years