Minister Matthew Groom yesterday advised me that he will not be contesting the next election.
Matt has served as a member of the Parliamentary Liberal Party for nearly eight years, having first been elected in 2010.
While in Government, he held the portfolios of State Growth, Energy, Environment, Parks and Heritage and more recently, Acting Attorney-General and Acting Minister for Justice.
During his time as a member of Parliament, Matt has been an important and valuable member of the Liberal team.
In Government, Matt successfully managed the energy crisis of 2016-17, keeping the lights on despite the unprecedented challenge of the lowest Spring rainfall on record, and a prolonged outage of the Basslink cable.
Matt has also overseen a massive boost in renewable energy development in the State, and kept power prices lower than when we came to office.
As Minister for State Growth, Matt helped achieve the renewed growth and strength in our economy, as well as a sharp decline in our unemployment rate.
Under Matt's stewardship, parks and natural areas were opened up to more tourism opportunities, and the Aboriginal Heritage Act was modernised.
Politics can be extremely demanding and stressful on family life, and I am sure all Tasmanians will understand Matt’s decision.
Matt has informed me that he will serve out his term as the member for Denison until the election, but will be resigning his Ministerial portfolios.
I will make an announcement in due course about future Ministerial arrangements.