27 January 2016

Reshuffle a dog's breakfast: Hanson

| Charlotte
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Jeremy Hanson

Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson has described Chief Minister Andrew Barr’s reshuffle today as a “dog’s breakfast”.

See full details on the cabinet shake-up here.

“It’s pretty incoherent. Good luck anyone trying to find out who’s responsible for various portfolios,” he said.

“When you have a ministry where the delineation is not clear, where responsibilities aren’t clear, that leads to trouble.”

Mr Hanson said he was surprised Labor had given education to Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury.

“That is a fundamental portfolio, that is a vital portfolio, and the fact that Andrew Barr can’t find anyone in the Labor team to take on such an important portfolio I think would be a shock to many Labor voters out there in Canberra who would expect that Labor would see education as a core value.”

He said he was also disappointed that Simon Corbell had retained health despite his impending departure from the Assembly.

“He’s not going to be there after the next election. Health’s got to be the number one priority, and if you’ve got a bloke who’s not even going to be around and has been cut by his faction, then it’s difficult to see that that remains a Labor commitment.

“So I think both health and education suffer out of this, and I think a lot of Labor voters in this town will be scratching their heads about what’s going on.”

Mr Hanson said it had not been a good start to the year for Mr Barr and that the reshuffle was not about renewal and refreshing.

“We see Chris Bourke coming back to the ministry, he was dumped by Katy Gallagher, he failed in the education portfolio, he’s been brought back in, so there’s no great talent there,” he said.

Mr Bourke maintains he was not dumped but instead made way for Shane Rattenbury to join cabinet as part of the new minority government after the last election.

The Opposition Leader continued: “I think people have got to remember that the reason this is happening, in large part, is that Simon Corbell as been knifed by the factions, and Joy Burch has been forced to resign because her office is being investigated by the police.”

Ms Burch denies her resignation is related to the police investigation of her former staff member, saying it is so that she can focus on her electorate of Brindabella.

Mr Hanson contrasted the new Ministry with his own team, who have been in their shadow portfolios for a number of years.

“I’m very confident that my team … have got a great deal of experience in their portfolios, and man for man, woman for woman, I think we can compare very favourably.”

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