Barring a huge surprise, Tasmanian Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson will suffer a major humiliation on Tuesday, when a majority of lower house MPs send him to the backbench over the Spirit of Tasmania fiasco.
Essentially, Mr Ferguson has challenged Labor and the crossbenchers to a game of political chicken; making it clear that he'll only leave his job if they wrench him out of it in public.Is this campaign to kick Mr Ferguson out of the infrastructure portfolio, and now out of cabinet entirely, a political stunt like the government insists?
"What Tasmanians expect is their political representatives to get on with their job in the best interest of Tasmanians and that has been my focus as Premier."The Premier wants people to believe there is only one political party focused on fixing the mess and getting on with the job — the Liberals.The delivery of two new Spirit of Tasmania vessels has faced significant scrutiny over its repeated delays and cost blowouts.
That's a lot of other people convinced that there's merit in the motion and believe that Mr Ferguson's mishandled the Spirits fiasco so badly, and failed to be transparent with the public enough that the ultimate punishment is warranted.Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said she considered reams of evidence, and thought extremely deeply, before deciding her party would support a no-confidence vote.
"But the events of last week and public statements from Mr Ferguson has demonstrated to me a breathtaking lack of contrition in terms of his role in the TT-Line/TasPorts fiasco."
Tasmania Michael Ferguson Liberal Party Parliament Backbench Ministry Treasurer Deputy Premier Premier No Confidence
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