{"id":133493,"date":"2025-08-10T04:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T04:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133493\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T04:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T04:41:12","slug":"independent-mlc-ruth-forrest-would-be-treasurer-in-tasmanian-labor-government-winter-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133493\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent MLC Ruth Forrest would be treasurer in Tasmanian Labor government, Winter says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tasmanian Labor will appoint independent upper house member Ruth Forrest as treasurer \u2014 if the party is able to form minority government when parliament resumes.<\/p>\n

Labor has confirmed a no-confidence motion will be moved against Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s minority Liberal government when parliament sits on August 19.<\/p>\n

The proposed appointment of Ms Forrest comes as <\/strong>both major parties are working to earn support from the crossbench<\/a>, after failing to secure a majority in their own right at the July snap election.<\/p>\n

Ms Forrest has been the independent Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) for the seat of Murchison <\/strong>since 2005.<\/p>\n

As the most recent chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Public Accounts, she has <\/strong>led a committee tasked with investigating the bungled delivery of the Spirit of Tasmania vessels, and has a special interest in budget repair.<\/p>\n

\"Dean<\/p>\n

Dean Winter has been courting Tasmania’s lower house independents as his party attempts to form minority government. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

“Ms Forrest has a tremendous understanding of the enormity of the task at hand, and the ins-and-outs of the position Tasmania’s budget finds itself in,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Labor leader Dean Winter said.<\/p>\n

“Ms Forrest has championed the need for budget repair for many years now, and I am pleased she has accepted my invitation to take up the role should the House of Assembly crossbench decide to support a Labor government.”<\/p>\n

In June, the state’s treasury department found Tasmania was headed for $13 billion of debt by 2028.<\/p>\n

Appointment comes as Labor wrestles for power<\/p>\n

Mr Rockliff’s government was recommissioned earlier this week <\/a>by Governor Barbara Baker AC.<\/p>\n

Governor Baker said she was appointing Mr Rockliff due to the convention of incumbency, and that it was better for parliament “to have the final say”.<\/p>\n

But with a looming no-confidence motion in the government promised from Labor when parliament resumes, the longevity of Tasmania’s new parliament is not guaranteed.<\/p>\n

The Liberals have 14 seats and Labor 10, and both need backing from the crossbench to make up the 18 required to form government.<\/p>\n

The crossbench includes five Greens MPs, five independent MPs and one Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP.<\/p>\n

Ms Forrest to help in ‘turning the ship around’<\/p>\n

Ms Forrest would replace shadow treasurer Josh Willie.<\/p>\n

She has welcomed the opportunity to play an active role in addressing what she described as “Tasmania’s fiscal mess”.<\/p>\n

“It has been a core area of my focus for a number of years now and I welcome the opportunity to play an active role in turning the ship around,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Forrest said.<\/p>\n

“Should the opportunity to become treasurer become a reality, I will maintain my independence as a member of parliament and, of course, maintain the important rules related to cabinet solidarity, cabinet confidence and collective decision-making.”<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Mr Willie described Tasmania as being “at the crossroads”. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Mr Willie said Tasmania was “at the crossroads”, and “many difficult decisions” were required to address Tasmania’s budget problems.<\/p>\n

“I will always make decisions in the best interests of Tasmanians,” Mr Willie said.<\/p>\n

“Drawing on the experience of Ruth Forrest MLC as a parliamentarian and the respect she holds in the community will contribute to the solutions we, as Tasmanians, need to find together.”<\/p>\n

Incoming independent for Franklin, Peter George, last month gave his endorsement for Ms Forrest in the event she were selected as treasurer.<\/p>\n

In a July Facebook post, Mr George said he had met with Ms Forrest about “how we can begin the process of budget repair”.<\/p>\n

“For me, Ruth Forrest would make the best next treasurer for Tasmania, and the old parties could do a hell of a lot worse than asking her to take the job to get us out of the budget hole we’re in,” Mr George said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Eric Abetz was appointed as treasurer<\/a> in Mr Rockliff’s government.<\/p>\n

During a press conference on Sunday, Mr Rockliff said he would welcome Ms Forrest’s input on the government’s new “multi-partisan budget panel”.<\/p>\n

“I look forward to working with Ms Forrest in that particular capacity,” Mr Rockliff said.<\/p>\n

He said he would leave it to the Labor caucus to offer opinions on Ms Forrest potentially becoming the party’s treasurer.<\/p>\n

The Liberal government’s new ministry will be sworn in at Government House on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tasmanian Labor will appoint independent upper house member Ruth Forrest as treasurer \u2014 if the party is able…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,8988,454,606,15783,80787,80788,50,80786,11121,3155,73957],"class_list":{"0":"post-133493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-election","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-labor","12":"tag-liberal","13":"tag-mlc","14":"tag-murchisson","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-ruth-forrest","17":"tag-tas","18":"tag-tasmania","19":"tag-treasurer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115002637348278454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}