ALP challenge talk nixed

LABOR leader Rebecca White says she is confident her leadership is secure, despite her party facing an uphill battle against the Premier’s surging personal popularity.

Boosted by his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Peter Gutwein achieved the highest recorded satisfaction result for a state premier in the most recent Newspoll.

Ms White shrugged off rumours that her leadership might be subject to challenge.

“I feel very confident in the support from my colleagues and from the broader party movement,” she said.

“I’m not going to give any time to people who are commenting from unnamed sources. I’m focused on doing my job supporting the Tasmanian community, and our primary task right now is making sure that not only Tasmanians stay safe, but that we support people back into work.”

Ms White said opposition leaders across the nation were facing the challenge of incumbents riding high in the polls amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“As we saw across the country, leaders in every jurisdiction gained enormous support from their community,” she said. “I’m not surprised that Tasmanian Government did too, because they’ve done a good job handling this virus, and they’ve had our support to do that.

“The real task ahead of all of us now is to support the economy to recover, support people back into work, and to make sure we look after one another throughout the next six months, 12 months, a couple of years.”

Labor’s Treasury spokesman MP David O’Byrne has been dogged for years by claims he has been planning a leadership bid. He rejected the latest suggestion.

“Every time we criticise the government, in all of their press releases, they talk about the leadership issue in Labor, which is not an issue. It’s ridiculous,” he said. “I don’t know how many times we have to say this: we are a unified team behind Rebecca White.

“Only a few months ago, Michael Ferguson fell maybe one vote short of becoming Premier of Tasmania

“There are deep divisions within the Liberal Party — Labor is united.”

For his part on Wednesday, Mr Gutwein played down the poll: “I’ve been asked questions about polls for the last 20 years and I’ve always made the same comment, and that is that I have no comment to make,” he said. “I will say this though — I set out to do the job.

“This wasn’t a popularity contest, it was about keeping Tasmanians safe.”