Former Liberal leader Leanne Castley has corrected the record. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Former Canberra Liberals leader Leanne Castley has confirmed her opposition to any coalition deal with the Greens and slammed their leaks to the media suggesting talks took place when she was in charge.
This does not mean Ms Castley can veto any such move for a deal, because the party room is not bound by a unanimous vote. But it would make it more challenging to achieve the numbers, making one of the independents a kingmaker.
Ms Castley told the Legislative Assembly late on Thursday that she wanted to clear the air over her position against siding with the Greens in government.
She said there were never any discussions with her office about a possible alliance while she was leader.
“While I was willing to work with the Greens on specific issues, I have never and will never support any kind of power-sharing agreement,” Ms Castley said.
She said her chief of staff repeatedly rejected informal advances by the Greens.
The deceitful leaking of these private conversations misrepresenting her position was reprehensible.
“I want to put on the record that I have consistently opposed such a deal and why,” Ms Castley said.
“I opposed it when Ms Lee was leader, I opposed it when I was leader, and I oppose it now that Mr Parton is leader.
Ms Castley said the two parties’ principles were incompatible, and any such arrangement should be endorsed at an election.
“I am committed to individual freedom and responsibility, to free markets and to our traditional institutions,” she said.
“The Greens do not share these principles and these commitments; they have their own principles, principles which are not only different to ours, but fundamentally incompatible.”
Ms Castley said she was not prepared to put aside these principles for the sake of power and limit governing to what the two parties may have in common.
“What is the point of a Liberal government with a Greens Chief Minister that does not deliver on a Liberal vision for a better Canberra?” she said.
She said that if the two parties wanted to form an alliance, it should be the voters who decide if this is how they want the territory to be governed.
“If we are seriously proposing to change the government, not just the leader of the government but the party of government and the direction of the Territory, the decision ought to be made by the people we represent,” Ms Castley said.
“After all, it is their government, not ours, and we should never forget that.”
