Modern family … the Hodgmans at leisure, says their Facebook page
… with thanks to the wonders of the internet and Wikipedia
In 1989, Labor Treasurer Paul Keating infamously described the Australian Senate as ‘unrepresentative swill’. Nearly 25 years later, many would be happy to ascribe this damning epithet to all politicians – lower house and upper house.
Tasmanians are voting in lower house elections on Saturday 15 March. The state currently has the highest level of unemployment in the country, especially youth unemployment. A third of Tasmanian adults are dependent on government benefits for their livelihood, and approximately 50 per cent of them are functionally illiterate. High school retention rates are the lowest in Australia, and the state’s performance in national testing is at the bottom of the ladder. Access to health services is the poorest in the nation, and hospital waiting lists are the longest.
Tasmania has an ageing population, and the population numbers are stable – we’re not growing. Young people leave, and retirees arrive.
So, how ‘representative’ are the candidates?
Let’s start with the party leaders – a brief biography, and some comments on personal attributes. After all, politics these days is all about ‘personalities’.
THE LIBERALS
Will Hodgman was born in Tasmania in 1969 – he is 44 years old. He was educated at St Aloysius and the Hutchins School and completed an Arts/Law degree at UTAS.
He has travelled overseas, and worked briefly in the legal profession in Hobart, and in local council services in England.
Mr Hodgman is Tasmanian parliamentary ‘royalty’ – a fourth generation Tassie Liberal politician, and part of a dynasty that began with Thomas Hodgman, who served in the House of Assembly from 1900 to 1912. He is yet to make it into government – other family members have arguably been more successful.
Young Will was elected to the Tasmanian parliament for the first time in 2002 and immediately made deputy opposition leader – at the age of 33. He was appointed opposition leader in 2006 – at age 37. He has been in opposition in Tasmania, in a senior position, for 12 years – he has no experience in government.
Mr Hodgman refuses to compromise if the electorate delivers a minority government.
On a personal level, Will seems mild-mannered enough. He has a chocolate box pretty family. He has neat hair, and tiny, non-threatening ears, and he wears sensible suits (he has an exceptional talent with a Windsor knot – he could give Tony a lesson or two). He seems to like to keep fit – he has been spotted, sweaty, in lycra in the Elizabeth Street mall.
THE ALP
Lara Giddings was born in 1972 in Papua New Guinea – she is 41 years old. She was educated at Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne, and completed an Arts/Law degree at UTAS (are we seeing a pattern here?).
Miss Giddings was first elected to the Tasmanian parliament in 1996 – at age 23 – but was defeated at the 1998 election.
She travelled overseas and worked briefly in an administrative role in the Scottish parliament. Otherwise, Lara worked as a party hack, before her re-election to the state parliament in 2002, aged 29.
Lara, or ‘La La’ to her friends, was elected leader of the parliamentary Labor party in January 2011 on the resignation of David Bartlett, and by default she became the 44th Premier of Tasmania, at age 38.
She has been in parliament in Tasmania for a total of 13 years, always in government.
She stated recently that there would be no further deals with the Greens to form government – a statement backed up with a pseudo-dramatic tearing up of the Greens logo, in front of an adoring anti-greenie crowd, by her loyal deputy, Bryan Green.
Personally, Miss Giddings has a manner reminiscent of a moderately aggressive senior prefect. Her CV is missing the appealing family, but it’s tough for a woman to have a career in politics plus a husband and several children, didn’t you know. She keeps other family on the down-low. Mum, Lynn, is a keen supporter of Sue Neill-Fraser and has joined calls for a review of her conviction and sentence – not exactly in line with the government’s selective deafness when it comes to the frequently expressed, ongoing public concern about this issue. Like Mr Hodgman, her personal presentation is characterised by neat hair and sensible clothing, although the penchant for voluminous scarves is entirely her own. Not sure about her attitude to fitness.
THE GREENS
Nick McKim was born in 1965 in London, England – he is 48 years old (no spring chicken by Tasmanian party leader standards).
Young Nick arrived in Tasmania with his family aged five. He was educated at the Hutchins School, Kingston High School and Hobart College.
Mr McKim lived for a time in South Australia as an adult, and worked as an advertising executive and wilderness guide. Bio information on line is a little sketchy.
He was first elected to the Tasmanian parliament for the Tasmanian Greens in 2002 at age 37, and has been the leader of the Tasmanian Greens since 2008 (aged 43).
McKim was the first Greens minister in an Australian parliament, from 2010 – aged 45 – until he was unceremoniously dumped in early 2014 by the Labor Premier in a desperate attempt to appease greenie-hating voters in Tasmania’s northern electorates, and minimise the scale of the impending electoral defeat.
Personally, Nick also appears to be relatively mild-mannered. Attack dog duties in the parliament are undertaken by his life partner, and fellow Greens member (and fellow ex-minister), Cassy O’Connor. He is also missing the appealing family – he has no kids of his own, and Cassy’s are kept out of the spotlight.
McKim is a neat dresser, but resolutely refuses to wear a tie. He looks fit, but a little undernourished.
THE PALMER UNITED PARTY (PUP)
Kevin Morgan was, according to his available online bio, born and bred in Tasmania. The year is not publicly known, but he looks to be in his mid to late 50’s.
He was educated at Burnie Technical College in the electrical trade.
Mr Morgan has had a varied working life, including several years each as a specialist electrician, a shift engineer at Hydro Tasmania, a small business owner and, more recently, an adviser to the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Kevin’s candidacy for the PUP in the state election is his third tilt at elected office, and his second for the PUP.
On a personal level, Mr Morgan is a comparatively unknown public figure in Tasmania, but I’m sure we’ll find out heaps if he is elected. He may even score his own Wikipedia page.
So, we have career politicians with legal qualifications leading the two major parties, a former advertising executive leading an annoyingly well-supported third party, and an aspirational Tassie tradesman heading up the local branch of an upstart party with a chance at upsetting the state’s political status quo.
All four have the benefit of education, and a comfortable lifestyle, so how well are they able to represent the mass of struggling voters in Tasmania – young people with a poor education, older people with meagre financial resources, and voters of all ages who lack adequate health care services?
They are all promising a brighter future for Tasmania, but they’re long on rhetoric, and very short on detail. And, let’s face it, they’re not representative of the people of Tasmania – especially Hodgman and Giddings. If they were, everyone would have a private school education and a cushy job. If everyone had Hodgman’s advantages, we’d be a state of dynastic political families, sharing power politely amongst ourselves.
Tasmania’s greatest disadvantage is the preponderance of uneducated, unaware and disengaged voters, and the easy fodder they provide for glib politicians who happily play to their generations-old prejudices.
We could be so much better than we are.
Fortunately, there are so many candidates on offer at this election that a voter can safely comply with the ‘number five boxes’ requirement and leave the Liberals, the Labor Party and the Greens right out in the cold. Maybe that might shake some of the complacency out of the current crop of incumbents and force them to give a passing thought to the best interests of the voters, rather than focusing entirely on their own.
• ABC: PUP newspaper ad authorised by Jacqui Lambie investigated for breach of election rules
• Andrew Denman President Tasmanian Special Timbers Alliance: Greens Forest Policy Bungle
• Kyron Howell becomes first state Liberal candidate to support marriage equality …
• Zucco seeks pledges from Political leaders
• Wayne Crawford, Mercury: Labor may be hung out to dry It is not that minority government — or, as we had for four years, “power-sharing” coalition government — does not work, or that it threatens the democratic process. Indeed, “creative tension” generated by no single party being able to dictate the political agenda has led to some of the best examples of reformist government in the state’s history. The Bethune Liberal-Centre Parties coalition government (1969-72) delivered more reforms in three years than consecutive Labor administrations had done in 35 years. There were long-overdue improvements to the Criminal Code, police training and the prison system; road safety was taken seriously for the first time; and tourism was recognised as an industry worth promoting. The written Accord between the Field Labor Government (1989-92) and five Greens ended in tears, but only after the Government had made some notable environmental reforms and great strides in getting Tasmania out of a financial hole that had been dug by the Liberals. And the minority Rundle Liberal Government (1996-98), which operated thanks to the unwritten and informal support of the Green cross-bench, was credited with numerous initiatives — gay law reform, and the tightening of lax gun controls in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, to name just two of the more memorable ones. Liberal premier Tony Rundle described it as “the most dynamic period of government in recent political history”.
• Rodney Croome: More Tasmanian election candidates support marriage equality than ever before
