Thorp seat targeted

CHALLENGE: Lin Thorp may face Paul Mason in the battle for Rumney in May.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Thorp seat targeted
SUE NEALES
Chief reporter

DUMPED Children’s Commissioner Paul Mason may challenge Lin Thorp for her Upper House seat in May.

There is speculation Mr Mason will run as an independent, taking on the Education, Police and Children’s Minister for the seat of Rumney.

His nomination would represent a personal attack on Ms Thorp, who has held the Rumney seat for the past 12 years.

Ms Thorp did not reappoint the former children’s commissioner last year after he wrote a scathing report about a 12-year-old sold as a prostitute while in state care. The report was highly critical of all three departments overseen by Ms Thorp.

She will not face a challenge from the Liberal Party, which will not run candidates in two of the three Legislative Council seats up for grabs in May.

Liberal state secretary Jonathan Hawkes confirmed the party’s state executive had voted not to contest the southern seats of Rumney and Derwent.

Retired police commander and former Franklin Liberal candidate Tony Mulder is expected to stand again as an independent. Mr Mulder would not comment yesterday. It is believed he is a financial member of the Liberal Party.

In the Upper House seat of Derwent, vacated by former Labor treasurer Michael Aird after 16 years, Derwent Valley Deputy Mayor Craig Farrell is Labor’s anointed candidate. The Liberals have chosen not to contest Derwent.

Disaffected former Liberal Jenny Branch is running as an independent.

Labor state secretary John Dowling admitted to surprise at the Liberals’ decision. Ms Thorp’s seat of Rumney, which includes the Tasman Peninsula, Sorell, Acton Park, Richmond, Nugent, Rokeby, Lauderdale and South Arm, had been considered potentially vulnerable to a strong local Liberal candidate.

Mr Dowling said Mr Farrell was very popular.

“But it’s amazing they haven’t got the courage to run a candidate in Rumney. It seems very unusual not to be putting their people before the community,” Mr Dowling said.

“I would also hope that current Liberal Party members like Mr Mulder aren’t seriously standing as independents because that sort of dishonest conduct would not wash well with voters who have a right to know their true allegiances.”

Liberal state secretary Jonathan Hawkes knocked back suggestions that a deal had been done with Mr Mulder, who stood for the Liberals in Franklin at the 2010 state election, and that the Liberals would not run a candidate against him.

“Our view was that Rumney is traditionally a strong Labor seat and we always look at whether to run a Liberal-endorsed candidate in an Upper House seat on a case-by-case basis,” Mr Hawkes said.

The Upper House seat of Launceston is the only electorate where the Liberals have endorsed a candidate. Former Liberal state president Sam McQuestin is running against independent candidate Rosemary Armitage and Labor candidate Steve Bishop.

(SCANNED)

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/02/24/209551_tasmania-news.html