Uppers and downers

NOTHING’S changed, at least that’s the official line.

Well, over a million dollars was spent in total by candidates during the state election campaign, and much more if you count advertising from groups like Tasmanians for a Better Future and the Wilderness Society. In the end Tasmanians elected exactly the same parliament as they started with, albeit with a couple of new faces to replace retiring Labor MPs.

It’s a result seemingly no-one expected. Kevin Bonham, Tasmanian Times Psephologist and former editor of this magazine, said to me soon after the final result was known that he’d looked long and hard but could find no-one who’d predicted the outcome — everyone had expected Labor to lose at least one seat. They came very close with Paula Wriedt elected on preferences over Liberal candidate Vanessa Goodwin, whose bright green posters and flashing roadside signs combined with a solid preference flow from Will Hodgman to give Labor their biggest scare this election.

I spoke to Goodwin the day after the final result was announced, a couple of days after John Howard had stated that he thought not enough time was spent pre- election letting people know what the party’s policies actually were. Did she think that, with over 700 policies released by the Liberals in the four weeks of the Campaign, it was a case of too much information in too little time? “I think possibly in hindsight it may well have been. Certainly I found it difficult to digest all of the
policies given my schedule of doorknocking and getting out there, and trying to absorb all that information is a lot to expect of members of the community particularly when they only get a filtered version through the media of what the policies are. I really think the people out there in the community didn’t know how how good our policies were and that’s something we need to learn from.”

When I spoke to Will Hodgman he agreed, saying, “we clearly don’t accept the result as satisfactory for the Liberal Party. I make the point that we did return a positive increase in our vote across the state. In my electorate we had an eight percent swing to the Libs so I don’t want to appear all negative, but clearly we wanted more than seven seats so we’ve got to do things differently and we’ve got to approach things in a way that does engage better with the community.”

It’s not quite true to say nothing has changed

Which brings me to my next point — It’s not quite true to say nothing has changed. Will Hodgman’s huge personal vote in Franklin (second only to the premier’s) was largely responsible for propelling him into the leadership. Already we have seen movement on a couple of issues, one of them being Rene Hidding’s commitment to govern in majority or not at all. “I think that the majority government issue was one that in many ways confused this campaign,” says Hodgman.

There may also be some change in the Liberal’s social agenda. A complaint has been made to the anti-discrimination commission about a Liberal leaflet which stated that the Greens’ commitment to gay marriage would lead to social decay. When I asked him about this, Hodgman said the anti-discrimination commission Would ” decide whether or not that comment was appropriate.” Is there room to move within party on this issue? “Of course,” he says, continuing that “the Liberal Party allowed a conscience vote on a raft of reforms that improved the lives of same sex couples” and that he’s on record as supporting the reforms.

Over at the Greens, the changes are far more subtle. A party conference re-elected Peg Putt as leader, ending speculation (by the ABC in particular) that Nick McKim
would replace her. Talking to Kim Booth shortly after his own slim victory in Bass I asked whether a portfolio reshuffle was on the cards. “I don’t think it’s likely, it’s not something we’ve discussed.” Doesn’t he think a higher profile portfolio would help his future electoral chances? After all he only won by 136 votes. “You only have to win by one vote” he says. Sure, but as a former sawmiller he must have a good claim to the forest portfolio. “I’m certainly interested in forests,” he says, but
reiterates that there’s been no discussion of a portfolio reshuffle. The parliamentary Greens were meeting the day this article was written, but no news of any change has emerged.

(Putt’s hold on all the interesting portfolios is something I think the Greens must address.)

However, we may see a change in their approach to campaigning. Putt has promised to be more “hard nosed” in the future, after facing what on election night she called “the grubbiest campaign the Greens have ever seen.” Exactly what this translates into we can’t be sure, but we might expect less feel good campaigning and more targeted attacks on their political opponents.

Trailblazer on the issue

For Labor, the win was decisive, and gives Lennon the confidence that comes with being an elected Premier, rather than a caretaker leader. This means among other
things that he’s free to pursue personal goals for his government. Chief among these is resolving the deep divide within Tasmania over its past dealings with the
traditional owners of the land. Speaking to me in the weeks following his win, Premier Lennon made it clear that “reaching reconciliation with the Tasmanian
aboriginal people is top of Labor’s agenda.” It’s clear the Premier would like to be seen in history as a trailblazer on the issue. “The Tasmanian government will be the
first government anywhere in Australia to resolve the issue … I’m quite confident that we will be able to resolve the stolen generation in a way that’s satisfactory to the Tasmanian aboriginal people.”

(The number of people affected by the “stolen generation” is reported to be a little over forty — this makes compensation a far less expensive proposition than most other states. I don’t think, however, this means that Lennon is being opportunistic. Later in my interview he said that further land grants will be looked at. I personally think the Premier is genuine on this issue and should be congratulated for tackling it.)

It’s also clear that Lennon will continue to be a close ally of the forest industry. (Not a surprising statement I know but this article was written for Uni students — it has become obvious since returning to uni that politics has dropped off the radar as a concern for most students in the years since HECS was introduced) When I asked him about ending old growth logging by 2010, a target the late Premier Jim Bacon asked Forestry Tasmania to investigate, his commitment was qualified. “What we’ve agreed to do is to end clearfelling in old growth forests — where it’s safe to do so. Remember that the community forest agreement that I signed with the Prime Minister last year has a requirement within it that we end clearfelling in old growth forests. That’s what we will do — we will deliver on that commitment, and in 80% of old growth forests in Tasmania clearfelling will be banned. Now some of the forests will continue to have small amounts of clearfelling happening because it will be too dangerous for the people working in them to do otherwise.”

Will Gunns’ proposed pulp mill require the state government to upgrade infrastructure in the north? “Absolutely” says Lennon. Of course the mill proposal must first go through the independent planning and approval process, but assuming it passes all of these steps there will be “infrastructure required to be upgraded by govenment — Federal, State and Local government, to meet community requirements for increased activity in and around a pulp mill site.”

Lennon’s new cabinet has recieved much press attention, but thanks largely to the Greens it has been Michael Aird’s promotion to the position of Treasurer that has
recieved most comment. Aird is a member of the upper house — the Legislative Council – and the Greens believe that will shield him from scrutiny by the
opposition, who mainly populate the lower house. Indeed while the ALP has only five members in the fifteen member Legislative Council, neither the Greens or the Liberal party have any — at least officially. In practice many of the “independEnt” members of the upper house are fiercely conservative and tend to consistently side with the Liberals.

Real debates are in the Leg Council

The new Leader of the Government in the Upper House is Doug Parkinson. That means it would be his job to get the necessary numbers in the Legislative Council to
pass bills without too many amendments. It’s a tough gig. “We have a battle on every bill,” he says in a brief phone interview. “It amazes me that the media
concentrate so much on the lower house when the real debates on legislation are in the Legislative Council.”

Parkinson is up for re-election in May, and his seat of Wellington takes in much of the Greens’ heartland. A fact sheet tells me that he has held his seat for over a
decade, and is Chairman of the Road Safety Council — largely responsible for the 50 km per hour campaign in residential areas and the 40km zone in North Hobart and Battery Point. He’s also campaigning on some “green” issues such as better recycling services, and tells me on the phone that he’s a “bit of a green” himself. He even put up a poster for Bob Brown when the Greens leader was just starting out.

Whether that’s enough to woo Green voters when there’s a strong Greens candidate will have to be seen. The Greens want in to the upper house, even more so now the Treasurer is there. While much has been said about whether or not they should have run Cassy O’Connor for the upper house, the truth is that preselections were held for both House of Assembly and Legislative Council elections at the same time. Cassy, it was hoped, would already be in parliament by now.

Instead the Greens are running Marrette Corby, a woman who first got involved with politics as an Arts student at Sydney University, firstly as a rep on the Union, and then as the only undergraduate representative on the University Senate. She has three degrees (Arts, Social Work and Law) and has run before for the Greens in the Glenorchy City Council elections and in the State election just passed. She’s also blind. Her disability has led to an interest in social justice, and she currently works for the Department of Health and Human Services. She’s keen to make sure Lennon fulfills his election night commitment to look after the state’s Children. “There are so many services in this state for children which are under resourced … health, child protection, education, disability services…”

Corby says the main thing she learned from her law degree was that “Law doesn’t equate with justice”. She wants be part of the legislative process so that the two can be brought closer together. The Legislative Council needs a Green she says, because while the ALP is in a minority in the house “the others are all conservative
independants. At least if there’s someone (Green) there, we can make sure the questions are asked.”

With the exception of Corby and Parkinson, all interviews quoted in this interview were done for Edge Radio’s state politics show “Next Week”, every Friday at 11am.

This article was first published in Togatus