Politics
Bartlett’s big final gamble
But from about April things started to go badly wrong, culminating in Thursday’s shocker of a poll.
The rushed introduction of Mr Bartlett’s Tasmania Tomorrow reforms heralded in a traumatic new school year, signalling the start of the Premier’s first real woes.
Then in the Tarkine forest the Government’s $23 million road failed to win support of local councils and tourist operators, continued pulp mill assistance won no backing from voters and the Government was forced to dump its plans for a new waterfront Royal Hobart Hospital.
Only Kevin Rudd’s generous cash handouts early in the year kept the wolf from Mr Bartlett’s door.
With steeply rising power bills, cost-of-living expenses, land tax imposts on shacks and new water bills, it is small wonder the honeymoon ended with such a thump.
Revelations of the past two weeks regarding the mishandled re-appointment of retired police chief Richard McCreadie — coming right in the midst of the EMRS polling of 1000 random voters — were almost certainly the last straw for many.
FIRST on Tasmanian Times, Rick Pilkington: HERE: Why Labor will lose the 2010 election