If you thought 2024 was about a new era of integrity in Tasmanian politics, you’re wrong.
At least Dean Winter declared as much yesterday with his announcement that Labor would reverse its previous position on a new stadium for Hobart. A click-heeled pirouette and that was that.
Unfortunately for those who crave good governance, this fails so many times that we had to count.
With Olympics on our mind, we gazed up at the flag the Labor Leader hoisted as he announced the new motto: ‘higher, stronger, faster’ has been replaced with ‘jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs’.
In the gentle breeze of Hobart autumn fluttered the flag not of the Summer Games but of the (Dean) Winter Games, known respectively as ‘the friendly games’ and ‘the fatuous games’.
It features five interlocking but broken rings of integrity:
1) “A lot of Tasmanians have been disappointed about how the deal came to be, and I was one of those people…” Winter said in his media conference.
No, fair to say that many were utterly outraged not disappointed. Outraged that a Premier could put the State of Tasmania on the hook for a billion dollar infrastructure project that had – and still doesn’t have! – any plan, any design, any proper costing, any scrutiny by Treasury, any public consultation or social licence, indeed any credible prospect of being value for money. Or a site that is actually buildable, and not better suited to other uses.
Being a newly-converted job-jobber does not give you licence to gloss over corrupt process. Procedural integrity, if you will.
Integrity score: FAIL
2) The stadium project – let’s ignore the ‘multi-purpose precinct’ hogwash, it’s a footy barn with window dressing – is now set to undergo a Project of State Significance (POSS) assessment by the Parliament of Tasmania. Although of lesser probative value, it’s also to be subject by an assessment by economist Dr Nicholas Gruen as part of the JLN-Liberal agreement.
Outing yourself as a pro-stadium cheersquad before the POSS has even examined a single document smacks of contempt of Parliament. Democratic integrity, if you will.
Integrity score: FAIL
3) Labor just lost its third election in a row. Its review is not complete. The time for major policy revision would surely be on the back on wide consultation with both Labor Party members and, just as importantly, the people who formerly voted Labor but now don’t. Integrity that comes from genuine representation of the people, if you will.
Remember that just a year ago Labor was funding and distributing NO STADIUM bumper stickers from every one of its electorate offices.
Now, in an Olympic year, Dean Winter with a figleaf of ‘Caucus approval’ on his leotard has attemped a backwards somersault with triple twist and faceplanted into the biggest hot mess in modern Tasmanian public life.
Raw integrity scores from the five judges, where the highest and lowest are discarded and the final score is an average of the remaining three: FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL.
Average score: FAIL.
4) Jobbity Jobster waving jobism like a paper plane he’d just proudly invented* said yesterday “A stadium will mean thousands of jobs in construction, including hundreds of apprenticeships.”
Yes Dean, but pray tell what assessment has been done that the stadium represents value for money as a job creation? Economic integrity, if you will.
Any crude evaluation will easily show that most of the massive cost of the stadium will be gobbled up by materials, specialist construction equipment, interstate engineering companies and the like. There will be relatively few local jobs given the cost.
As demographer Lisa Denny noted last year, Tasmania doesn’t really have a demand issue in the workforce equation, it has a supply issue.
But in any case, as work creation schemes go, you could probably employ more people for less by paying hi-vis grunters to shovel money into a furnace to keep Labor’s half-baked ideas at least luke-warm for another Winter or two.
Integrity score: FAIL.
5) We have asked the Labor Party to state on the record when this Caucus decision was made. Did it magically happen just moments after the polls closed for the three Legislative Council seats? Or was it taken well before, and cynically kept secret from voters?
We have had no response. We can only assume Labor wishes to avoid scrutiny of this, when it should be straightforward. Integrity of clear communication with the electorate, if you will.
Integrity score: FAIL.
We haven’t even factored in Our Place Hobart’s accusation that all this is just maneouvring to scuttle the Tasmanian government’s preferred Macquarie Point option and then replace it with former Labor Premier Paul Lennon’s so-called 2.0 proposal for Regatta Point, but with Mac thrown in like a snackable kickshaw for PL’s hungry developer mates.
You can have that one as a bonus. Thank you participating in the Winter games.
We understand that the closing ceremony however will have to be held at either York Park or Bellerive Oval, as the Hobart Stadium remains but a foundationless, unfunded forelock-tugger fantasy.
Alan Whykes is Chief Editor of Tasmanian Times.
* the new paper plane looked a bit flash but didn’t fly
Ben Marshall
May 7, 2024 at 11:09
With a Centre-to-Hard Right Labor Party now fully backing a Centre-Right JLN / Hard-Far Right Liberal government, Rockliffe and corporate investors everywhere will finally have the ‘certainty’ they wanted – no stupid “laws” or “evidence” will be allowed to slow the exploitation of Tasmania and its people.
TasLabor might be a dead horse, witlessly flogged by owner Paul Lennon’s clueless jockey, Dean “Jobs!” Winter, but TasLabor has enormous value to the corporate sector, and ‘mates’, by occupying the space where an Opposition party should be.
Lambie’s mendacity, in using her brand power to displace genuine local and independent candidates in order to harvest Liberal preferences at Jacquie’s next Senate tilt, should never be forgiven. We can only hope the three JLN babes-in-the-wood do to Jacquie what she did to Clive Palmer.
Otherwise there’s almost no one left to hold the Liberal-Labor Party to account.
Angela Bridle
May 7, 2024 at 20:51
What a disgusting backflip to achieve a sliver of personal power!
Voters won’t forget.
Kevin Kiernan
May 7, 2024 at 21:33
What an absolute bloody disgrace for the Tasmanian ALP to hide a policy backflip until the day after an election!
It’s time to rename the Tasmanian ALP “the CRC” in recognition of its ability to detach even the most rusted-on of its former adherents. In my view Tasmanian Labor’s plummet into farce has already accelerated dramatically under the new “leadership” of Dean Splinter (as in under the fingernails!).
Labor politicians stand for nothing except their quest for political office. They may as well no longer exist. I look forward to the formal establishment of the Laborial party by merger of the Tasmanian Labor and Liberal parties in a bid to over-ride the will of the Tasmanian electorate, which these days increasingly votes for neither. Both have become absolute rubbish.
Roderick
May 7, 2024 at 22:53
Beware the small town mayors, and their quests for significance. Politicians are often referred to as psychopaths, add we can add narcissists and a recipe for delusions of grandeur. Long gone are the days of Labor luminaries – men with great vision, empathy and honesty, like Gough Whitlam, Tom Uren, Don Dunstan, etc.
As I have reiterated, the Australian comedian Max Gillies once said on the Gillies Report, “Hello! I’m the Mayor of Tasmania, where today and tomorrow walk hand in hand towards yesterday!”.
Roderick
May 7, 2024 at 23:06
Or, a Wizard of Id cartoon …
A prisoner said to Rodney, “I came from a very small town”, and Rodney asked “How small was your town?” The prisoner replied “It was so small that the Mayor had to double as the village idiot.”
Allan Miller
May 8, 2024 at 10:09
What an utter disappointment for anyone who voted Labor! No wonder poor Rebecca White was so non-committal and unclear before the election! I wonder what was going on behind the scenes.
Any Labor MP who goes along with this and tries to defend it will look very dodgy indeed in rubbishing healthcare, ambulance ramping, the pandemic, people living in tents etc .. while the major parties are happy to put the state into massive debt for decades to come for another stadium.
I haven’t heard much about the Chocolate Wheel of late. The last time I heard anything about that was actually on the BBC .. where they were having quite a giggle.