Transcript of candidates forum hosted by non-partisan non-profit body The Australia Institute at Ulverstone Civic Centre, 15 April 2021.
No Liberal Party candidates attended. Organiser Eloise Carr of TAI advised TT that the reason was that ‘they don’t attend events that are not community based’. On the same day, the (Liberal) Premier attended a debate organised by the Property Council, held at Wrest Point Casino.
Eloise Carr
I will ask the first couple of questions, and then I will hand over to you for questions. We’ve got a microphone down the front. So please come down to ask your questions. We just because of COVID, we didn’t want to hand around microphones and similarly I’ll ask you guys to come up, rather than having one around here. Please, everyone, keep things civil and audience members, please remember to ask a question rather than make a statement candidates please keep your answers on topic. And since we’ll have a maximum of one and a half minutes for your answers. And Helen is our timekeeper for the night. There’ll be a friendly bell when your time is up. And a less friendly bell if you keep ringing the bell –
Matthew Morgan
I’ll pre-warn you I’m slightly deaf and I didn’t hear the bell.
Eloise Carr
Do you want to hear it one more time?
Matthew Morgan
Yeah I heard that time, thank you.
Eloise Carr
The Australia Institute is non-partisan. We barrack for ideas, not for particular parties, or individual candidates. We do research that matters and a key area of our focus is democracy and accountability. We think part of having a good government is having the opportunity to meet your candidate and to hear from them directly. Compared to other Australian states, Tasmania has weaker political donation laws, less government transparency and limited public accountability. The Australian Institute has published recommendations for much-needed government reform in Tasmania. Our report, which there’s hard copies of down the front tonight, recommends a coordinated approach to reform across four key areas, including strengthening the Tasmanian Integrity Commission, introducing truth-in-political-advertising laws, an election donations regime, and improving our Right To Information system. Not everyone will agree with what we think is the way to have good government; the reason we’re here tonight is to ask questions and to listen in to each other’s ideas. I’ve got a few fun facts about this electorate. The electorate of Braddon is named after Sir Edward Braddon, one of the leaders of the Federation movement in Tasmania. Braddon served in the Tasmanian parliament, was premier from 1894 to 99 and was also a member of the first federal House of Representatives elected in 1901. In 2018, the electorate of Braddon had 73,601 votes cast, and a candidate needed 10,718 votes to get a quota and to get elected. Currently, in Braddon, you have two Labor and three Liberal Members of Parliament. Since the House of Assembly was reduced in numbers from 35 to 25 in 1998, you’ve had Liberal and Labor members and one Green. To date, no independent has been elected in Braddon or at least not for the last 70 years. But who knows that could be about to change. At the last election, Jeremy Rockliff was re-elected, Adam Brooks was re-elected before Joan Rylah took over when Brooks resigned and then Felix Ellis took over from her, Anita Dow for Labor was elected, Shane Broad was re-elected for Labor and Roger Jaensch for Liberals was re-elected. I’ll now hand over to our candidates to introduce themselves; who would like to go first?
Brenton Jones
A very good evening, everybody. I’d like to say thank you to the Australia Institute for facilitating such a forum. It’s a great help, especially for the independents and minor people to get their word out. My name is Brenton Jones. I’m standing for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party. We represent people that feel that they’re disregarded and not listened to nor taken seriously by the major parties. We believe in a mentally and physically healthy life and existence and to be able to go out and do our pursuits without encumbrance. We enjoy the outdoors. And target shooting is only just one part but fishing, camping, keep a healthy mind and body out in the open. We also support good, solid, independent enterprise, a right for people to be able to go and endeavour and make a living. We want everybody to make a living, not just enough to pay the bills each week, but also have discretionary money so they can enjoy life. We feel that most of the ills of society at the moment come from not having any hope. Youth come on, and they get into crime while they have no will to study hard at school. Why? Because they don’t see any future. They’ve been listening to false hopes. And yeah, just falsehoods for ages and they’ve just given up. They don’t believe in the system any more. So the key essence is to have enterprise so everyone can go to work, earn a decent living and have a rewarding existence. And that’s what the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party is standing for. We have detailed policy, which you can see on the website. But we believe fundamentally all the problems with education, law and order come from not having a decent, sustainable enterprise system. Thank you. I’ll keep it short.
Dr Darren Briggs
Darren Briggs
Thanks Australia Institute and thanks for the acknowledgement of country. Darren Briggs is my name, I’m for the Greens. This for me is not a planned career pathway. I’m here advocating on issues that I believe matter. And I’m here for my kids’ future. I moved from South Australia to the north-west in 2011 to further my medical education and career. I was attracted here by the natural beauty, the mountains, the streams, the wild places and wilderness for which this region is revered. Getting out and about amongst these keeps me healthy, happy and sane. Climate was definitely a part of that consideration in my planning; the livability into the future in a world where climate change makes things uncertain. And I know I’m not alone in that one. I’m a doctor working in emergency medicine at the Mersey Community Hospital and occasionally GP work in the north-west and smaller towns. I’m passionate about health care. And the need for our long term plan to health. Health needs to be publicly funded and eauitable to alll based on need not on the depth of the hip pocket. Healthcare needs to be holistic and have a ground up approach, starting with town planning with open spaces and cycleways, through to primary health and community care, to our emergency departments, our hospitals, our cancer centres and our palliative care. It’s concerning and demeaning to me as a health professional and a consumer to see health, a basic human right, beholden to electoral electoral cycles and promises of funding if you back a certain political party and vote for them. I’m a doctor passionate about healthcare. And I understand the importance of responding to climate change, the greatest threat to our health in the 21st century, a threat to our kids’ future health and prosperity. I’m a former small animal veterinarian and a dairy vet. I studied agriculture in high school. And I have first hand knowledge and experience of farming, the importance of the Tasmanian brand to the Tasmanian brand and economy, importance to food security, importance to the role of farming in our response to climate change. I’m a small business owner with a holiday accommodation place on the west coast at Tullah. I understand the importance of our natural beauty and its importance to tourism, much of which is untapped potential. I’m a community member of fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty and accountability in our current political system. I want to hear truthful, honest answers. I want to have political representatives standing up for the vulnerable, for the young, and for nature which sustains our very economic and physical existence. I don’t want politics beholden to vested interests, to donations from large corporations. Democracy should not be for sale. I’m a Green. I’m a Green in Parliament, which means putting people first, long term forward thinking, evidence-based transparency. I will not back down on pursuing what is right for our kids. Greens means the future.
Dr Shane Broad
Shane Broad
Thank you to the Australia Institute for putting this on. And thank you everyone for being here tonight. So I’m Shane Broad, I’m the Labor member for Braddon at the moment and hope to continue in that role. I grew up on a farm about three kilometres from here with my two brothers and sister. I went to Ulverstone Primary, Ulverstone High, Don College. I’ve been in the Australian rowing team. And I’ve got a degree and a doctorate in agricultural science. And I’ve worked for people like Tasmania Institute of Agriculture, CSIRO sustainable ecosystems, in the in the finance industry and for state and federal governments. I got into politics because of frustration. As a scientist, I could make recommendations, I could write reports and nothing happens. It is in Parliament where you can make decisions that change people’s lives. So now I’ve settled down; I made the choice back in 2005, after nine years in Hobart, to move back to the coast. And my wife and I are now here, and we’ve got three young kids, and we wouldn’t be anywhere else. Like all the other candidates here, I’m passionate about the north-west coast and I want to make it a better place. I got into parliament because of that frustration, but my focus has been on fixing things. That’s what I really like to do is to try to fix things. And the other thing I like to do is help people who come through the door. So I’ve been focusing on on big picture projects and ideas since coming into State Parliament and things like trying to unblock bottlenecks on state economy, like the Burnie port, like the TT-line, but also helping people who come through the door, helping people with small issues, large issues and trying to fight for them so that things can get fixed. Things like we’ve got housing clients who have gas heaters, and it’s costing them a fortune to run, I really like to fix that. But I get really frustrated because we can have these situations where we simply can’t help because the government won’t respond. Things like we have people come into the office and say, Look, I’m homeless, I have my three kids, and I’m sleeping in a car. And I can’t do anything about that. I can write a letter to the minister and get a polite reply, some months later, if they can be bothered, and that family is stuck in that car. And there’s nothing we can do about it, because we know that there are no houses. These are the sorts of problems that we need to fix. And that’s what I’m really passionate about. Also, I’ve been out door knocking flat out, probably like a lot of other people, and I’m hearing time and time again about the health system. You know, I went out door knocking in Devonport two days ago and ran into two people that are on the waiting list for hip surgery. Waiting list for two years for hip surgery is too long in time. These are the problems that we need to fix. In the terms of health, I think that we have a plan to fix health. I know that everybody’s cynical, and it’s quite easy just to say, you know, it can’t be fixed. But our health spokesman Dr. Bastian Seidel is a GP, he runs and owns GP clinics down in Huon Valley and he knows the health system intimately. He was also, he was President of the Royal Australian College of GPs, and we’ve got a real plan to fix it. And I’d really love the chance to roll that out. I’d really like the chance to keep representing Braddon. I’m passionate about it. I just want to make this a better place. Thank you.
Matthew Morgan
Matthew Morgan
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Matthew Morgan. I live in Stanley. I’ve been a recreational fisherman for in excess of 60 years. I’ve been a commercial fisherman for in excess of 50 years. There is a grave disparity between the two. It seems that it’s one side against the other. Having been passionate about both sides, I would like to be the moderator to bring common sense to the equation between the recreational fishers and the professional fishers. I’m known as the salmon guy, I was one of the founders and administrators of Wild Fishers for Sustainable Salmon Farming. I have an absolute passion against what the intense marine feedlot salmon farming is doing to Tasmania’s coastal waters. I have an intense dislike for the fact that the Liberal government intends over the next eight years to allow that industry to double in size. I have a dislike for the fact that the government has a new recreational fishing plan that they failed to release coming into the election. They have a brand new draft plan for this ‘sustainable’ salmon growth in its maps and everything else like that. That’s being withheld until after the election. This is just straight out corruptness. It’s, it’s not right. And the current fiscal hole … look, we, the current government inherited from Lara Giddings in 2014. There is your answer why, when you would think that the economist John Lawrence many others make comments about Tasmania’s terrible finances that why isn’t Labor standing up, jumping up and down and taking to task about it and simple, the answer is very simple. Lara Giddings’ Labor government dug that hole in 2014, that’s undeniable. I think I’m probably the only totally independent candidate that’s standing. I’ve taken no preference from any one. I’m not giving any. I’m told that, that makes it virtually impossible to get a quota of votes in Braddon. But I believe if people can see honesty and integrity, that my take their fancy and give me a go. I would bring the same passion and integrity to Parliament that I’ve given for all the years running boats for the people that I’ve done. And I’ve made a career of that, made a lot of money for the people that own the boats, made a fair quid for myself. I have a problem with the housing crisis, it’s already been mentioned, but it’s reaching a critical stage. I agree with the youth, the dumbing down of the nation, the very first things that happen when you have very poor governance is they attack the education system, and the arts, and both of them have been defunded under Liberalism. Thank you very much for your time, ladies and gentlemen.
Craig Garland
Craig Garland
Good evening my name is Craig Garland. I thank the Australia Institute. I was born and bred in Wynyard, spet my time fishing and hunting. I left for the Navy, I came back and worked on waterfront for nine years, virtually shipped and transported just about everything we produce in this state. Then I started a small business, won an award after five years, turnover doubled and created a hell for me. Then I left and went walkabout for six years, I wasn’t sure really what I wanted to do. I did everything that was expected me for the better part of my first innings. And I decided I needed a bit of time to find out what I’m doing with the next stage. And as life happens, it sort of took over. And I didn’t really have any direction at all, it sort of dictated where I went. My passion for politics is as a result of seeing what’s happened in this state, in my lifetime, to our rivers, to our forestry, to our oceans, and to our culture. I couldn’t sit back any more. It was out of frustration. I sat on an advisory council for six to seven years, I was the only fishermen from the whole north coast, trying to factor in environment, other fishermen, recreational, commercial and the community’s best interest. And I thought that’s ridiculous. My goal is to bring community back into the equation when we’re making decisions. Most of the problems we face today are as a result of majority government pushing through agendas funded by corporate donors, without the community there. That’s my number one goal right; now we need diversity in this Parliament here. My biggest fear is what will be announced after or if the Liberals get back in. If we don’t have independents there to make sure we get good decisions made, we’re going to just keep having this repeating theme of community ignored, division, and watching what we hold dear. The values associated with Tasmania, all these people that are coming here right now to live here, those values that are attracting people here, are being done over every day of the week with this government. You know, the salmon industry. Look at taxation: $2.40 each one of us Tasmanians get from them turning over $900 million in our waterways and destroying them in the process. That’s absurd. We have a health system where the waiting list has doubled since the Liberals have been, in that hasn’t been addressed. It all comes back to money. That always comes back to money. We have to redirect the taxation. Look at the Farrell family. Another classic. They want to go from 30% taxation back to 20%. Under the remote gambling, that’s ridiculous at a time when Tasmanians are struggling. They’re sitting outside hospitals, they can’t get attended to and we’re debating about whether they get a 10% reduction on an industry that is not gambling. If it was horse racing, they’d be thrown out. It’s rigged. So people have to wake up. And the big message we have to do and stand as one is vote for independents. I’m a bit unlike Matt. We need a team and if we vote for independents right across the board, you can put your party preference, your historical preference second, and we have to send a loud message. Because what’s just unfolded in Canberra in recent times is absolutely disgraceful. I think it’s the worst state you could ever get in.
Liz Hamer
Liz Hamer
Thank you to the Australia Institute Tasmania for hosting this and respectfully to all the candidates. And thank you to all potential voters for taking the time out to come and hear what we’ve got to say. I’m chewing into my time but my bugbear is we need an anti-corruption commission here in Tasmania to protect our people and their rights. I won’t go into a lot of it, but you can ask any question or questions. And at the end of the day, till you’ve been snowed in for eight weeks, you’re not going to know what isolation is. I rely heavily on emergency services on the west coast, to protect the tourists and people that come in. I rely medically on north-west coast hospital. The nurses, I’d like to see better conditions for them and the doctors. I had the displeasure to watch someone go without lunch just to tend a patient in outpatient in the North-West Coast Hospital and, and I’d like to say that they’re caring and they deserve to be treated like frontline workers. As far as the advertising goes, I’ve got $150 in my own money to get the pamphlets out. This is all I can offer you if you’d like to take one tonight. I just hope to restore the west coast back into its former glory. And I’d like to put the people back into politics. I want you people to walk into parliament and know that that’s where you can do something. Across the board I’m hearing, why bother? Why do anything? Our letters don’t get read. I have a gentleman that wrote a letter nine years ago and he got one response. That’s not good enough for our Tasmanian government to treat their community. Just a little bit about me, I’ve spent 40 years in emergency services as a volunteer firefighter. I’d like to see Tasmania put a lot more back into all volunteers not just on the emergency services, but CWA, all the structure that makes the community work. Because we’re losing it; if we’re not careful, we’re just not going to be a community anymore. And that concerns me, and probably each and every one of you. I want to see Tasmanians care again, and know that their letters are going to be read, are going to be responded to. This government and governments prior, I just I just think they don’t care enough. And they they’re out of our league. So if I get voted in, I’d like to start at the bottom and work my way to the top to prove to you the voters that I’m going to give it a go. I might not know what to do yet but I’m going to learn. And it’s with your help that I’m going to learn to help you be part of Braddon and be proud of it. Thank you.
Eloise Carr
Thanks, everyone. Because it’s my party, I get to ask the first question. Tasmania maybe currently relies on national laws to regulate political donations. That means that anything under $14,300 does not have to be declared. Since the election was called both the Liberal and Labor parties have volunteered to disclose donations about $5,000 within 48 hours. What will you or your party commit to put into law as a threshold amount for disclosure on political donations? And in what timeframe would they be disclosed?
Brenton Jones
On the issue of a level of donations, I have absolutely no view or have any idea of what might be appropriate. I do know that in federal politics everything is seven times bigger than the state. And the only issue that is really concern for me, is donations from places like China or Russia or wherever that slipped in under the backdoor to promote a political environment favorable to them. They should be banned. Australian politics is for Australians, for people just like you and me. And when we feel that we’ve want to donate a certain amount of money to a party to help them along, or a candidate, will then all be included. I don’t know whether it’s appropriate that there should be a maximum level for that. But it is a concern when I think that Clive Palmer spent $20 million on an election and didn’t even get a seat. I don’t know how much it helps. But I do know in the case of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party and myself, we’re really hamstrung by budget. And you will see precious few of my photos around in the street because I just physically can’t afford to do it. That’s a concern when, again, you get people like Adam Brooks that spend 15 grand on photos and think nothing of it. There is a disparity. So maybe you people should decide if and what level.
Darren Briggs
Yeah, I don’t, as I said earlier, don’t want the political system bought. The political system is for us, for our representation. But you’re going to see I use guidelines and policies and documents in my everyday life as a GP, I’m going to be doing the same here. The Greens have a strengthening democracy policy, we’re going to place caps on political donations, a cap of $3,000 on aggregated political donations from the same source per electoral term. And these political donations will only be allowed from citizens and permanent residents, not corporations. Real time disclosure; I believe, even now, donations to the greens are real time disclosed on our website after five or so days. But we’re going to ensure disclosures seven business days after receipt of the donation, or within 24 hours during the seven days prior to election polling. We’re going to have also caps on electoral expenditure for individuals and for parties and public funding of electoral campaigns to even it out so that everyone can have a voice. Thanks.
Shane Broad
Our electoral donation laws in Tasmania, the worst in the country just about. You don’t have to declare anything unless it’s over the federal threshold which is t$4,300. AW still don’t know who founded the last election campaign for the Liberals. And we never will, because that’s how many holes there are in our electoral system. And also, the Premier Peter Gutwein promised to bring in electoral donation reform before before this election. And obviously, that’s not going to happen now. We are committed to it. We indeed brought legislation into the parliament for debate and that legislation had a few things in it. One was donations of over $1,000 had to be declared within 30 days and published on the Tasmanian Electoral Commission website, that includes donations that accumulate up to $1000, reach a threshold of 1000, would have to be declared. And also, we’d be willing to discuss caps on electoral spending for individuals and parties. So we’re serious about this. We think that we shouldn’t have an electoral system that can be bought and paid for and it should be transparent. At the moment it’s absolutely not, and it needs to be fixed.
Matthew Morgan
I’m the same, I’m self funded. That’s why you’ll see very little of myself about, I’m relying on social media and good people like yourself. It’s very, very simple. Any money that’s donated should have the person’s name alongside it’s whether it’s $1 or $100 or $100,000. Like when we have our sports people playing, when Tiger Woods picks up his golf clubs, he’s got the Nike socks on, he’s got the Nike hat on. We know he’s getting 100 million bucks from Nike. If BHP petroleum is funding our government, we have a right to know whichever corporation. Like we’re being total fools. It doesn’t matter if you made it $1 and you made a mandatory limit what someone’s been suggested here of $1,000, $2,000 some smart person will work out a way to take that to advantage or one of the major parties. So the only possible I have true real freedom and transparency is that all donations from $1 upwards need to be logged and accountable it’s that simple ladies and gentlemen.
Craig Garland
Yeah, I think real time disclosure. I think there should be a cap, that should be discussed. And I’ll quote someone that had a different take on in the 30s, Franklin D. Roosevelt, he stated that government by organised money is as good as government by organised mob. And that about says it all for me.
Liz Hamer
I’m sorry, I think it should not only be capped but a set mount for advertising. I don’t want you people to judge me on how my billard looks or my pamphlets, I want you to judge me as a person, because I’m the one that’s going to go into the House of Assembly and represent your views, what you want. This country needs to remember it’s the people. So how about we just tone it down? I don’t like to see $50,000 spent on pamphlets. Money can be spent better. And I’m sorry, I just I’m pretty disgusted with some of the placards, and how it’s been done. The media have wiped me, because I’m not special. And I’ve got nothing other than $150. So the next time The Advocate want a story, give me a ring. Don’t just say, I don’t want to talk to you. Thank you.
Eloise Carr
Okay, one more question for me. And then I’m really hoping that you guys are gonna jump up to the microphone and ask some questions, please. So South Australia and the ACT have truth in political advertising laws. This means that if during the course of an election campaign, you provide false or misleading information, it is an offence and you can be prosecuted. Will you or your party commit to pursuing truth-in-political-advertising laws for Tasmania?
Brenton Jones
Thank you for that question. It’s totally splendid. The reason I’m in politics, I wanted a nice quiet retirement but now I am just so frustrated, infuriated. And it’s the stinking lies that they tell with impunity. They can promise you pork barrel anything they like. And it’s almost like the community expects they won’t honor, you don’t care. But it’s about time that you jack up and say you do care, you’re fed up with being lied to. And these laws should come in where if they do lie, they are prosecuted and sent to bloody jai. Itl is absolutely disgustingly wrong. It is a profession of lying and misleading and bending the truth. Very common within the legal system, I’m sure, but with the political system, you deserve to hear the truth and have it honoured.
Darren Briggs
Again, policy documents we’re going to stand by and be consistent with. We’re going to repeal the ban on referring to candidates by name and replace that with a ban on distributing advertising material that’s talking about a candidate but is not on behalf of that candidate. Truth in political advertising laws are essential. We’re going to model of them on the South Australian legislation. And if an advertisement has any inaccuracies, or is misleading in any material extent, then that needs to be removed and dealt with. I think a common theme, which I’ve been finding out about talking to the electorate and everyone seems to talk about, is we’ve had enough of inconsistencies and non truths, non transparency. Look in my job, honesty, and truth telling, and consistency is so important. It needs to be the same in our system that governs us and is looking out for the most vulnerable. So definitely into that, definitely into looking at misconduct in public office type offenses as well, because politicians are there as an example and need to stand and be held accountable for what they say. So that’s why it’s important to say no, if you don’t know.
Shane Broad
You know, when you tell people, you’re a politician, it’s like you’re telling them you’re a serial killer sometimes, because you definitely get treated a lot differently. And, you know, I think that politicians of all stripes do have a lot to answer for. I’d be interested to actually have a look at this legislation, how it operates. And how would you judge what’s, what’s the truth or not? What’s the, what’s the bar? But yeah, I think that it would be good idea to have a look at for sure. I didn’t actually know that it was in operation. So there’s no doubt that we’re all getting bombarded with with all sorts of messages. And there’s no doubt we’re all guilty of it. Because a scare campaign works. Having what I think a better idea than having a group of people or the population of Tasmania being scared into submission is to have an Informed electorate that can sift the wheat from the chaff, and then these sorts of scare campaigns don’t work. But I think that this is probably something good to have a look at. I can’t commit to it here tonight, I don’t know how it actually works. But I think that we do need truth in in politics. And we need to all be held accountable, and that includes being held accountable for election promises, being held accountable for performance throughout the whole term. And also, I think we probably need to change the way that we do politics so that everything isn’t just loaded up on the election year, that we do more work and more promises throughout a four year term.
Matthew Morgan
I actually really love this question. People get influenced on how they’re going to vote by what these people that we put our trust in. They’re supposed to be upstanding pillars of the community. And they lie blatantly to us. And Australian politics took a great downturn in the year of john Howard when the media caught him out blatantly lying to the whole of Australia, he said, Ohthat was an alternate truth. And we let that slip, Australia let that slip and politics in Australia has been a downward spiral ever since. Now, the catch phrase between all the governments, both the people in power and the opposition still use it, the favorite saying that’s a core promise or a non core promise. A non core promise is a euphemism for anything that’s a lie. I 100% agree with there should be accountability. And people that lie to the public about the governance and their future should be prosecuted and go to jail. 100% in favour of it, thank you.
Craig Garland
Well that took the non core promise that I was going to talk about. But yeah, if we’re going to be fed lies, then ultimately we’re living a lie. And that’s not good enough. I know there’s quite a few older people in here. But if you got caught lying in the 70s, and earlier, as a politician, you fell on your sword, you resigned. And that’s what should be expected. If people are caught out lying to us, they should fall on their sword and leave parliament and let somebody else come in who can tell the truth.
Liz Hamer
I’d just like to say that it’s time that everyone was made accountable for their actions, which is just a common sense thing to find common sense in your advertising and promises. I don’t want to spend taxpayers money and make promises that I can’t keep. In three years, I want to be able to achieve something. So far, I haven’t seen any candidates over the last 15 years that have achieved anything that I’ve asked for. Yeah, they should be made accountable. And if they don’t justify what they’ve said in their advertising, or their promises or yeah, let’s give them community service and see how it feels.
Eloise Carr
So who’s going to ask the first question from the audience. You’re going to just speak loudly. Yep.
Audience member 1
There was a study completed in New South Wales Roads, referred as for safety and to clean up roads. The study found that there was a $3 billion cost to NSW Health budget. in Tasmania, we have over 83,294 children, primary and secondary, go to school every day, backwards and forwards, morning and night. A lot of those children are taken by their parents, by 4-wheel drive, their exhaust pipe of CO2, nitrous oxide and other carcinogens. My question is to the panel, in particular Darren who understands these issues. So originally, the Tasmanian government gave a contract to build 100 buses, and we paid $50 million for that contract. And as I understand it, a new contract is just been released for 26 buses to add to that fleet. Not one of those boxes has been built to be able to be battery electric. Here we have, again in New South Wales, I beleive 8000 buses in their public fleet. They have met a contract this year, to BusTech who are building them in South Australia for 600 electric buses. And they’ll be built for the next 10 years, 600 per year. And I believe about the pathway there, the 8000 buses (inaudible). Here we have Tasmania not a single bus. We have a roughly 20 to the 23 days of energy security or fuel security, I should say in Australia, and it’s probably less for Tasmania. And yet, we have a hydroelectric Hydro scheme, and we don’t have a single electric bus on this state. So when I say Tasmania, is there a policy for electrifying the buses for our schoolchildren, that are putting up with those gases for the moment from the tailpipe, and for a cleaner roads system for Tasmania.
Brenton Jones
That’s a really good question. My party is about common sense, critically thinking about a problem and acting on evidence and what’s reasonable rather than just emotion. In Norway, in Sweden, there are heaps of buses and trucks are all electric, highly successful. I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have them here. But I do know that our state government contracts out to private companies to do the school bus rides and things like Mersey Link. What buses they buy is really very much a business decision of those individual companies. And as a government party, what we could do is give them an incentive that we would like you to convert all the battery power and we’ve got a certain amount of money we hope subsidise you change. Right at the moment with the federal government policy and all that, electric vehicles are taxed to the hilt, protecting the interest. And that’s the problem, it’s the corruption in the system, where for them to stay in power, they’re going to look after these big entities, okay, and the fuel supply chain and the system and the large manufacturers have got them in the (inaudible). It’s where it’s most important federally and as well as state and we start here in the state, to get some of us independets in, people who do not owe any favors to anybody. And we can make a decent, logical decision and electric is the way to go. I agree. And Shooters, Farmers and Fishers party are down for logical, non-emotional, evidence-based actions.
Darren Briggs
Thanks. So I’m into health. Research from the federal government in the early 2000s put that about 2000 people per year die prematurely as a direct result of emissions from our vehicle tailpipes. That’s double the road toll. We spent about last year, we put 2.4 billion into making roads safer, as we should. We’ve got the least stringent fuel exhaust standards in the world. It’s costing us our health, it’s costing us money, we definitely need to act. And that’s nothing to do with climate change. We could talk about climate change effect on that on top. Pollutions are making our kids unwell. There’s Doctors for Environment Australia has started a program recently called Idle Off. As you drop your kid off at school, there’s significant health improvements by turning your vehicle off when you pick the kid up, or you pick your child up, take your child home. Electric is definitely the way to go. It’s in our policy on our approach to climate change. I have challenged Peter Gutwein before, I’ve been in an electric vehicle for over two years now in this state. Going into my business down the West Coast going to Hobart, we now have a very comprehensive electric vehicle recharge network in the state, it’s getting better. It’s very practical, money goes back to Tasmania instead of Exxon Valdez and BP and things like that. It makes entire sense. It’s clean. And it’s just it’s criminal that the ministerial guys aren’t in electric vehicles already. The buses, there was an electric vehicle thing last year, I was told the buses are designed so that they can rip the engine out and put … but you’re saying that’s not the case. It’ll be interesting to know that. Thanks.
Shane Broad
Just if we take a step back for a second, I think having kids on school buses is a really good thing. It is actually the safest mode of transport that we have. I took a bus to school every day of my school career. And what we see and I remember I was in high school, either end of Ulverstone high school, there was a massive bike rack either end, and you know, Ulverstone is pretty flat. A lot of kids rode their bikes to school, and we don’t see that anymore. Or you know, I was absolutely shocked when I saw that many years ago now that the bike racks had been ripped from from either end of the school. And that sort of goes to show that, you know, parents are scared to let their kids do things that we did as kids including walking to school, including riding to school. Now, from what I understand the BusTech buses are designed to be able to sometime down the track rip out the engine and put in batteries. But I think in this particular instance, what we have is when hope runs into reality. At the moment, if the technology was viable for for the bus companies to take it up, then you know we should be supporting that. Absolutely. But I know that as was highlighted here that the government actually contracts private bus companies, and then the school run is only part of the day. So they do charters in between. So if you’ve got a school bus that just goes into school and does nothing else, and on a flat run, you probably could have an electric bus. But if you suddenly want to do a charter because a cruise ship is in Burnie and you want to take them to Cradle Mountain, then maybe that’s not such a good idea. So, but there’s absolutely no doubt that electric vehicles are going to take over. And I think what we’ll actually see is a change like the iPhone, where something will come that it will drive everybody to the technology and then change will be massive. But at the moment having more kids on buses is a really good thing rather than those small vehicles driving, clogging up our roads and putting out even more pollution.
Matthew Morgan
I must admit, ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t my forte, but I’ll have a shot at it. The Tesla motor vehicle. It’s technology personified. And even for people that like to test themselves a little bit in nice twisty roads and everything else like that you can get on your laptop and for certain amount of money, you can dial in sports mode in your Tesla, and you can go and leverage. Mass produced motorcycles: it would probably shock most of you to realise the first mass producer of motorcycles in the world to build the electric bike for commercial sale for you and I is Harley Davidson. Like, if they can recognise that this is the future, it’s a no brainer. Everybody else has spoken very well on the subject. You’re more conversant than I am, but for the fact that Harley Davidson is making electric motorcycles for mass production says it all for me. Thank you.
Craig Garland
Yeah, we have to move away from fossil fuels. We have a project that’s in the pipeline with West Coast renewables all about hydrogen production. I had a fellow ring me the other day. And he said, we were talking about hydrogen production. On the west coast, we’ve got Savage River, we’ve got Que River, we’ve got all the mines down there, they can create green steel. Going to the alternative energy source, we have to move away from these fossil fuels. As Matt knows too well, with the surveys they do, the petrochemical companies that kill our fish larvae, and have a detrimental effect on the environment. It’s crazy. So the quicker we can get to the renewables, the better. But I might add, it has to be done in the right place. Very important. But yeah, it’s just common sense. So I’m backing it 100%. And get away from these fossil fuels and all the nasty impacts that they have on us.
Liz Hamer
Buses are my forte, I used to drive a 65 foot Scania bus. I do have a heavy rigid license and I’m looking to go on to a heavy combination. Cradle Mountain. I don’t know whether I’m allowed to mention names but Peter McDermott’s company over in Launceston has brought in the electric buses. There are challenges having electric buses and cars in the state. We need different dealerships, we need different infrastructure to support the mechanical side of the buses. It’s great to have kids on buses, we just need an impact study to see how it’s going to work in the citie. We’ve got lots of electric stations to recharge the vehicles, maybe a backup with solar might be an option. But then we’ve got to dispose of the batteries. Because they’re a deep cycle battery, we can’t just throw them on the tip or send them to recycling. So we’ve got to get a recycling thing going in Tasmania. So yeah you could create more jobs having electric cars. RAC T and the people that know, McDermott’s coaches, I would be looking at their input into any government buyback scheme for the old buses and replacing with the new. There’s, there’s a way round it to replace vehicles that are just … I’d go back to horse and cart but they’re not going to let me. So if you can appreciate, there’s a lot more than just bringing electric vehicles into the state. Thank you.
Eloise Carr
Okay, we’ve got another question, please. Go ahead.
Corey Speers (questioner)
Okay. So the question is going to be slightly different for Shane because it’s in relation to minority government. So I’d like to know how the independents and the smaller parties would navigate that situation if it does arise. And obviously Labor has said they won’t govern in minority. That’s not really your decision, that’s our decision. So I’d really like to know are you going to do.
Brenton Jones
think a very important element about managing anything is negotiation. When you’re forced to negotiate, and taking account other people’s opinions and views and gather evidence from everywhere and arrive at a sensible decision, you get the best outcomes. When you’ve got majority, you’ve got the groupthink all the like, and working to their club agenda. So I don’t think that a minority government or shared government is a bad thing. Some might think it’s inefficient, don’t get things done. That’s the major parties’ frustration, they can’t get what they want to get done, but forced to negotiate. And I think negotiation and coming to a balanced deal has got to be in the interest of everybody as a whole.
Darren Briggs
Greens have done majority government, eh minority governments in the past, I was dreaming for a second. Maybe one day. I’ve seen a lot of European countries have minority government. I’ve seen the signs, you know, stable majority government. But that hasn’t helped our health system, hasn’t helped our housing system crisis, it hasn’t helped education. I look at majority government as an ecosystem that’s out of control. Think of the mouse plague on the east coast recently. You get one species or one political party out of control, they, they go entirely for what they want, forgetting about the importance of others, they decimate the ecosystem, and they ultimately make it bad for themselves and everyone. Minority government gives a voice to everyone. It’s all about, as we’re saying here, about finding common ground, coming to conclusions, taking the majority opinions and looking out for the vulnerable, so bring on minority government I say.
Shane Broad
Well, I don’t support minority government. But having said that, we’ve made a pretty firm commitment that we won’t govern in minority. In fact, it’s against our party rules. And that was after 2014, the people of Tasmania made a judgment about minority government. And that was to keep us, as Brian Green, a nine out of ten (inaudible). But we have to understand as well that whether you’ve got a majority or a minority, when Labor’s head majority governments, we’ve still had to negotiate, because we’ve never had the Upper House. So no matter what you want, we have a bicameral system in Tasmania, where we had to get anything that Labor wanted to do past a bunch of independents in the Upper House. That’s largely still the case, that there’s negotiation. So the idea that a majority government gets absolutely everything they want is wrong. But what we see in Tasmania is the Lower House as well, politics is played, and to get things through the Lower House, you need a majority government, otherwise, politics is played. But just to remind you that the reason we’re here today is because the government, the Liberals, didn’t think that they could govern in minority. And in fact, I think it could be reasonably argued that they created that circumstance. And it only lasted another two days from when Madeleine Ogilvie decided to cross the aisle. So we’re here based on that, which is a mistruth. But I think we have to be realistic that the majority of Tasmanians want a majority government, you can see in elections that that swings votes one way or another. And we have to accept that.
Matthew Morgan
It’s a myth, perpetrated by every large party, every major party in every country in the world: you’ve got to vote for us, we have to have total control or nothing will get done. That’s endemic of politics all around the world. It’s not just here in Tasmania in Australia, it’s everywhere. And it’s a fiction. If an idea or proposal that comes before government needs to be rubber stamped and bulldozed through, there’s something wrong with that. The proposal is wrong. If it can’t stand on its own merit between reasonable and rational debate, and then pass the test, it shouldn’t pass anyway. And this is the fiction that the major parties play on, is if you don’t vote for us, and we don’t get a majority. Yesterday, the paper, it’s a ripper. The Liberals are going around throwing money about like confetti at an Italian wedding. And as long as we get majority government, these promises are going to be met. Like one of the biggest problems is everybody wants the lollies. We all want the new bit of road right out the front. We all want the new sports complex and everything else like that. Until all of us here stop holding out hands out for the lollies, realise it’s not an endless bucket of money and that the party system is broken and we need to sit down and rationally debate and talk each issue through, nothing’s going to change. Thank you very much.
Craig Garland
All of our problems we’re experiencing today and in the past are there as a result of majority government. In my view, majority government is a minority view being rammed down our throats. We have to have democracy; democracy is about everyone at the table, putting their input and coming up with a solution that is best for all concerned, not having the numbers to push through anything you want. Majority government killed Macquarie Harbour, that was the fast track expansion of the salmon farm industry. Two and a half weeks by an Indonesian, or Malaysian science company, I’m not too sure where they were from, but they weren’t Australian, two and a half weeks paid for by the salmon farm companies. And that was ticked off, that expansion. And that’s what killed the harbor. That was majority government. We need more diversity in the parliament, one of their best parliament’s recognised by john Howard and others was Ben Chifley’s. I think one was a loco driver, I think there was a boot repairer or and some other bloke there from some other obscure background, but it’s recognised as being one of the best working parliaments we’ve ever had. And we need to get back to that. You know, we’ve got we’ve got proportional representation in the senate where everybody’s got a call number right across the state, across Australia. That’s what we should be looking at here in Tasmania. You know, in the old days, communities met in the hall, they raised their issues, and they sent forth someone to represent them. When the Labor Party and the Liberal Party conspired to reduce the numbers in parliament from 35 to 25, for their own survival, is when everything went extra pear shaped. So we have to get back to that minority government. And if it causes problems, and it takes a while to get to the outcomes, they’re going to be better outcomes, and we’re going to be better represented.
Liz Hamer
Look, you’re all going to make your own decisions on which way you’re going to vote and I respect that. But what I need you to know is that with the majority government, they make quick decisions, you’re not going to be notified, no one’s going to be notified. With a few independents mixed up, I think we’ll get a fair hearing, and maybe a little bit more investigation into what we’re going to pass or not pass. The minority government, well we’re the same as a majority government, I think it’s time after talking to a lot of elderly people that they’re just sick of it all. They just want independents, and the country’s going to go that way. So there’s a bit of bad news, but there’s a lot of people that feel that way.
Eloise Carr
I’d like to hear from a lady, please. Yeah, go ahead.
Audience member 2
So federally, there’s been a big change in the way women’s voices have been raised recently. What I’d like to know is how would you or your party address some of the issues like gender pay gap, domestic violence, sexual harassment and violence in workplaces, homelessness for women and children, issues relating to superannuation for women because of their caring responsibilities, and participation of women in Parliament?
Brenton Jones
That’s a pretty tough question. There’s a lot of elements into that I’m not going sure whether I’m going to do a very good job of addressing every one perfectly tonight. I don’t know that the pay gap or inequality between genders, I don’t know how that actually manifests itself. Whether it’s because women spend less time in the workforce because they take time off to have children and raise children, whether that’s the issue. I’m pretty sure that if you get, if you’re a marine biologist or something where you’re doing some tasks, the pay is exactly the same for a male as it is for a female and that’s the way it’s been. (boos). Is that right? Well then, I’m bewildered as why and it must be coming down to ineffective negotiation. Obviously I’m not equipped to answer all those details. And I do apologise. That’s a really deep one, I’ll leave it to other colleagues to answer Thank you
Darren Briggs
Really good question. And some pretty sad times, I guess politically at the moment, I’ve always been saying Greens representation in Tasmania is highly representative of women at the moment with our two members, Rosalie and Cassie, obviously being female. In our party, there’s lots of female input, which is amazing and gives us a breadth of understanding and knowledge. I don’t know a lot of detail, how are we actually going to achieve that. So I apologize for that, I’ll need to look a lot, more than happy to speak to many people. We’re going to put in a human rights bill, which is about making sure the rights of individuals is maintained. And we have got policies in relation to emergency accommodation, domestic violence. But I’ve got a lot to learn in that area. Thanks.
Shane Broad
The question is an important one. I think, in debates like this, sometimes it’s probably not good to get an opinion from a man, I think it really needs to be coming from a woman because you know, we have a lot to say. (audience groans). Now I’m, I’m getting to the point that there, what I’m saying is, is that this, it’s very easy as a man to be blind to the inequality, because we don’t experience it, we can, we can ignore it. And we, as men, need to do better. I’m trying to make a point here. The Labor Party has done some really great things in terms of, what we had to do is we put quotas in place. And now it’s really good that we don’t need them. They’re still in place. But we have, we have a female leader, we have a female deputy leader. And we have nine out of nine out of 13 women at nine out of the 13 in our parliament are women, there is a voice of change in the Labor Party as we said. And indeed in Braddon I’m one man, and there are four women want our ticket. But we do need to do better. as men, we need to stand up. And when we talk about issues of domestic violence, I’ve heard some examples of women who’ve come into my office and told horrendous stories of the way that the system is perpetuating problems, the way that they get treated by police, by men. And that has to change. And that is changing. But it’s not fast enough. And the easiest way to do that is to have more women’s voices in the debate especially.
Matthew Morgan
It’s a very good question. As a commercial fisherman who participates in the offshore fishery, away for a very long period of time, sometimes 14 to 20 days at a time, my wife, she’s raised my family. She’s looked after the home, she administrates all the business. When asked by a colleague, what split between you and your wife, I said 50-50 but it’s unfair, he said why’s that, I said she could have the lot as far as I’m concerned. I get the easy bit, I just get to go away and catch fish. She does all the hardcore stuff, make sure the kids are ready for school when they’re going to school. The house is neat and tidy, the bills are paid. It’s absolutely absurd that women doing the same work in the workplace, get paid less, get disrespected more. On the domestic violence, that caps over into another problem that I’ve been made aware of their social issues. It’s often to do with drugs and alcohol. Mental health issues are thrown in there as well. And it’s both areas that our government isn’t throwing enough money, time or expertise at and we need to make them sharpen up their game, it’s a very good question. Thank you very much.
Craig Garland
I have two sisters, a mother and a heap of aunties, so I’ve been surrounded by women all my life and I’ve made some astute observations. They can juggle many tasks at once. They’re better at making decisions based on heart, heart and mind. Whereas, blokes, we’re a bit one dimensional. I’m not saying there should be more women in Parliament or they should be less, but this state has a really good opportunity right now. They’ve got two good female candidates, independents, down south. If the women of this state get behind them, and also, the other good women candidates in this area, they can push their case and push it hard, and being in a position to actually get something done about it. We all saw what happened to Sue, when she tried to represent the people that voted her in, and it got in the way of the party, away she went, you know, that’s disgraceful. So yeah, it’s a real, real tricky one. Talking about the opposite sex, we’re all the same, we all want the same things, we all want to get to the same place. Traditionally, women have not been treated well. The domestic violence, I just cringe every time. I’ve seen some horror stories on the ABC as of late, what’s happened to ladies of the world. And it’s gonna take every one of us working together to make sure that they get to that place where they should be, and they deserve to be elevated. I sat through three childbirths. And I’ve seen my partner and what she’s done, she’s just amazing. And she’s got plenty of friends out there that want the same thing. So if women stick together, get yourself soe candidates and put your weight behind them. And if not put it behind me and I’ll put it behind them.
Liz Hamer
Just to answer your question, federally, on the issues going on over there. I had an (inaudible) tell me me take the alcohol out of Parliament, you won’t have any problems at all. Take the drug out of parliament. I’m not saying anyone’s doing it. But I’m just saying let’s do a drug and alcohol test. We don’t drive a car to work drunk or drugged. We don’t drive a truck, drunk or drugged. A lot of the problem is abuse of substances and not reporting things. I think everyone should be treated equally, fairly. And it doesn’t matter what gender you are or what race you are. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman I think men have it harder these days not knowing what women, how to treat them. They frightened of them. And I get frightened of them too because there’s too many rules. You know, everyone’s jumpy, because when Ooh he touched me on the wrist. Look I think we need common sense back into women in parliament in all the jobs. And look, I know there’s some terrible things that go on out there. But maybe we need to improve our justice system because there’s some bad things out there, which I don’t want to talk about, but it happens and we need to be aware of it. Thank you.
Eloise Carr
Would you like to go ahead?
Audience member 3
Hello. You mentioned about the salmon far extensions, and the detrimental impacts to the environment. I was wondering if any other members of the panel – several of you have a fishing experience. What are the detrimental impacts of the salmon farm? And are you all up for it expanding? Or is there another way that we can farm salmon to make them more sustainable? Because as a younger person, I kind of want beaches in my future. And I don’t want salmon farms clogging up all the coastline. I like views of the ocean. So if that question could be answered, that’d be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Brenton Jones
(inaudible) has been a commercial fisherman. I guess he’ll have the most in depth knowledge and insight. But the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party have the basic that we want to encourage all forms of enterprise. Tasmania has got to be shared equally amongst everybody and all the endeavours and we need enterprise, to pay our way and to prosper. But we do recognise that places like Strahan and all that have suffered because of overloading of fish pens. Mainly because it’s an enclosed water. You’ve only got a very narrow gap at Hells Gates there that can’t effectively flush. But I do believe they’re doing a lot of research and having offshore fish farms, where you have a lot more water floating around, and I reckon that’s what should be developed. So you have much more volume, you have a kind of a concentration of waste, and poisons being confined in that space. So we’re really for expansion of fish farming, because there aren’t enough natural resources to feed everybody fish. And we need it and need it for physical health. And we need it for the economy. But again, we’ve got to work out what is the best practices to do it and not pursue practices that are counterproductive just because they’re cheap, or they’re convenient, either politically or logistically. I know that with tuna fishing off Port Lincoln the pens are way out to sea and they have tugs to tow them in. Why can’t we do that with salmon?
Darren Briggs
I’m not a fisherman. I used to tell my kids to Ulverstone to do the fishing thing, we aught one fish in three seasons because I made them put sunscreen on first, apparently that’s not good on the bait. Salmon. We as the Greens, we look at every industry and assess it for putting people first, environmental sustainability, and for scientifically-based. I know there’s significant concerns with the intense salmon farms effluent especially in Macquarie Harbour and areas that are sensitive where you don’t get good flushing of that out. There’s effects on other species in that area where you get deoxygenation and effects on other plants and other fish, there’s some disease concerns. There’s concerns with like dolphins and seals in those areas. From the Greens Party, Rosalie Woodruff, and Peter Whish-Wilson had a lot to do with the potential expansion of salmon farms in the area and have been advocating to make sure that what we do is sensible and safe. We certainly don’t support them in sensitive areas, like near Robbins passage or along the north-west coast. I mean, they’re talking about a lot in the north, north-west and down the west coast. Ideally, salmon farms should be land based where you can manage that effluent waste, and you don’t affect the fragile marine environments that they are currently in.
Shane Broad
I think to be fair this sort of a debate needs more than a minute and a half. But, you know, I support the salmon industry and I support the expansion of the salmon industry. But the question is how? I mean, we hear a lot of emotive language. And among them, I imagine we’re about to hear some some very emotive language. But the thing is, is that salmon farming is like any form of farming. It requires management and it requires a rotation. So indeed in Macquarie Harbour, we’ve heard, and people did get it wrong. The Macquarie Harbour was going to be where the majority of the expansion of the salmon industry was going to be in the state. But when they hit, they got about halfway through what thought they could get. And then we saw problems in Macquarie Harbour, but what we got is a system of adaptive management. And now Macquarie Harbour will never get to 22,000 tonnes it’ll be under, it’ll be around 12 to 10,000 tonnes per annum in the Macquarie Harbour. And the areas of Macquarie Harbour that, that we saw most of the impacts, have actually recovered. And that’s the thing that doesn’t get heard in the debate, is that what we’re not, we’re not talking about the permanent environmental damage. We’re talking about, what you can do is you can rotate the salmon pens around the area, and the seabed will recover. The question is, how do you do that? So I come from a farming background. And the same question is in my head, you can’t grow potatoes in the same paddock every year, you have to rotate. For the industry to grow, that there has to be new areas, and those areas will be further and further offshore. And we’re seeing technology being developed right now. But I can tell you that the technology for land-based salmon, if you actually investigated, it is far worse for the environment. It uses a lot of electricity, there’s a lot of disease problems. And at the moment, it’s not economic, the big projects that we’re probably going to hear about in a few seconds haven’t been stacked up because if they did stack up then the whole salmon industry would be on land and it’s not. What we’ll see in the future is salmon, the salmon farms further offshore. And that’s where the future is, but it’s an industry that it can expand.
Matthew Morgan
Love it. It’s beautiful question. It’s one of my pet subjects. So I feel have been favoured in this. Where to start. Moving the salmon pens offshore, right. It doesn’t matter where in the water column you drop a piece of paper, or a little piece of sand, or a little bit of salmon feces, somewhere down the water column, it’s going to settle. Depending on the weather conditions and how hard the tides are with the moon phase and that, it’s going to settle somewhere. Now, if you were a painter, and you’re in a paint shed, and you’re using the whizzer thing that stirs the pain, you actually when you’re cleaning the thing and you get paint spatter, and once the first drops of paint settle, then you end up with this random effect with all the rest of them congregate on those things, and they make little paint stalactites. So the fiction of moving it offshore. Why not bring it on shore. Shane? Look, I respect him. He is good politician. But he’s grossly misinformed. Around the world they’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on land-based salmon farming. These are huge, multinational businesses. One of the biggest investors are the Norwegians who are actually the parents, the birth people of the salmon industry. they’re not fools Shane, they make a lot of money. They’ve had their teething problems. I actually put a proposal forward where rather than expand the industry we’d bring 10% ashore a year which wouldn’t hurt their profit line. And over 15 years, you’d have the whole lot of them out of our coastal waters. They are a terrible plague on our waters. There is no nice way that they do it. They don’t do the rotations, it’s a fiction. It needs to come ashore or go way way off oceanic. Thank you.
Craig Garland
My biggest issue, it comes back to majority government. We found out about the salmon farm expansion into north-western and King Island waters on the 630 News. There wasn’t discussions with any fishermen in the state. They threw it at us on the news. The threat to salmon farms, fish larvae. I’ll be real quick, fish larvae. Most pelagic fish larvae have to go to the surface to inflate a little air sac when they come out of the egg. And most of them spend it in that upper surface for three to five months. He put a salmon farm down into the area where they do in the north-west, it is the most significant fish breeding and feeding area in this state. The amount of fish larvae that floats around in their water there is more than significant, it is it is probably the most significant place in this state. Now the King George Whiting, they bred on the north-west coast and what was killing them off every year when they were breeding the fish larvae was the APPM pulp mill, that went, five years later we started to see a build up of King George Whiting to the point now where we’ve had two or three good year classes coming through. What happened with that expansion, the Minister allocated to his cousin’s company, the Petuna seafoods, a grow out area. I don’t know how many acres that out there Matt, the amount is 10,000 acres or something that’s a significant area anyway. We had a reallocation of a wild fishery area over to a foreign company. Petuna on sold that area to Sealord Mitsui that have a terrible track record. So without one cent changing hands we’ve seen our wild fisheries handed over to a foreign national. It’s the process, and there’s a better option. There’s been cheaper power offered to Petuna by a west coast renewable project that’s been stalled and stymied by the Liberal Party for the last 12 months. That project ticks all the boxes, they’ve offered cheap power to them, they’ve entered into an MOU to get their shit onshore. And if you look at all the associated cost with doing it in the marine environment, shooting seals, relocating 1000s of them onto our fishing grounds and shut it down. Killing cormorants, algal growth all through the d’Entrecasteaux Channel area, which coincidentally is a recreational fishing area and what the hell is salmon industry doing in there in the first place?
Liz Hamer
As you know I come from Strahan on the west coast. Over the last 30 years I’ve seen fish farms prosper, the harbour heal itself, the environmental impact study’s here if anyone wants to access it. It’s a good food source. It’s always going to be there. The fish farms take very serious about the harbour. We have a barometric rise and fall, we don’t have a tide. Maybe dredging of the harbour might just help us all a little bit. We’ve had fish diseases (inaudible). But with the 100 years of Mount Lyell mining and dumping into our harbour, finally, I can say I’m happy with the fish farms, because someone’s doing something environmentally friendly, to heal our harbour. And it’s beautiful. But I love my west coast. And I love my Macquarie Harbour. As kids, we used to take a boat, we were only four or five, off we go. Everything’s changed. It’s shut it down close it down. I think we’ve got room for expansion, a lot of industry. And the west coast needs a lot of help to get money coming in and out. We can’t rely on mining. Thank you.
Eloise Carr
Lady down the front.
Audience member 4
First of all, I want to express that I regret the ruling party did not have the guts to send somebody so we could find out whether they have a vision or not for the future. But my question is, what ideas people has to do with our natural resources. We tend to sell somewhere else and create jobs overseas. What we can do here in this state with our mining (inaudible) to create jobs here for our kids.
Eloise Carr
So your question about mining and jobs, is that right? And natural resources as well.
Brenton Jones
Well everything’s got it’s place, we have to have a multi faceted industry here. We’re catering well for the tourism and the ecological side. There are things that we could do better. But that alone isn’t going to supply enough employment and enterprise to really fully support us and make us thrive. And mining, yeah, if it’s done very well. Maybe, you know, that helps a little bit. But Tasmania is a fairly small geographical area and the mines are pretty close to settlements. And so it have to be very careful how large and developed they are. But I don’t see any reason why we can’t have technological advancements. We should have a best petrochemical the best electronic engineering, the best manufacturing anywhere in the country. It’s a good place to be and a pleasant place to live. And we should promote these intellectuals and people that can actually produce high tech goods here in Tasmania, and manufacture them here. And don’t just send all the ideas to China or Taiwan. We’ve got to start looking after our own people. And we’ve got to do that through every individual industry we can, there isn’t one area that can support. Mining alone will sink us, fishing alone would seek us. Tourism. Certainly not big enough to support all of us but you’ve got to incumbrance everything.
Audience member 4
In terms of mining industry I meant to do something with what they mined for the people of Tasmania.
Brenton Jones
We have an aluminium refinery, and maybe we need an iron refinery too, make tungsten steel and stainless steel here in Australia.
Darren Briggs
As far as mining goes, we’re supportive of mines that are currently existing in mining- permitted areas, we don’t accept except expansion into areas that they aren’t permitted at the moment. For example, MMG in Rosebery wants to pump their tailings across the Pieman River into the region that’s been out assessed as having seven out of 10 World Heritage characteristics when you only need one. There are a number of mining proposals in the state that we’re accepting, that would look at re-mining areas that are previously mined to clean those up and get those resources. As far as resources like value-adding, absolutely, whatever products we get here we want to value add and provide Tasmanian jobs. You want to use electricity that we produce here to produce products that we then can sell on. And I guess one of the prime examples of that is not so much through mining, but with forestry with timbers from forest plantations, we want to be able to process that timber here in the state. Instead of sending it as chips or logs overseas, where then we buy the product back for example, I can’t even in Bunnings buy stakes to put up electoral posters that are from Tasmania, those timber stakes come from Indonesia, because there they are ‘ethically sourced’. (audience laughter). And that’s because our forests comes from native forest, which doesn’t get FSC accreditation. So absolutely, onshore processing our products, I don’t have a lot of information about mining products itself. But we’ve heard about green iron ore in the past.
Shane Broad
I’ll just say that my stakes for my election signs didn’t come from Indonesia, they came from Tasmania. We have a long and proud history of mining in Tasmania. And in fact, we wouldn’t be a state if it wasn’t for mining, it was really only when Mount Bischoff was discovered that Tasmanian could justify being state. And we’ve been mining ever since. And in fact, a bunch of my ancestors came from England to mine on the west coast and places like the silver mine in Penguin, there’s been a lot of mining all around the state. And you’re right though, it would be fantastic. If we could value add value add everything I think as a small stage, we need to do as much of that as possible. However, we have to be realistic, you know, the idea of creating like an iron smelter steel, a steel mill here in Tasmania is one that’ll only work if there’s it won’t work on scale, it has to work on something else. So it could be a green hydrogen plant, perhaps, but I think we have to be realistic about what we can do and what we can’t do. But what we can try and do is instead of sending that or as a bulk product, we try and value add that or to break it down into more valuable components. So things like what Savage River does, you know, they produce a pellet, and it’s high quality and that that achieves a much higher price for iron ore than you’d get just from the Pilbara. Obviously, the Pilbara just works on scale. Tasmania can’t work on scale, because we are small, we have value add. But I think we have to be realistic and understand that we won’t be having a steel mill and making cars in Tasmania. But what we should be aiming to do is to is to value add as much as possible to every product and get the most value from the state.
Matthew Morgan
I think the previous speakers have spoken very, very well on value adding in the mining, I don’t think there’s anything I can add to that. But value adding in industry, Sustainable Timbers at the moment is logging a very large coupe on the north-west coast. Our bees are very important to agriculture, to the lives that we live and everything else like that, they are absolutely destroying when one of the largest leatherwood coupes that still exists on the north-west coast. So if you talk about simple value adding at the coalface is just do that sustainable logging just a little bit smarter and leave the leatherwood intact for the beekeepers so that we can all reap the benefits. That’s a no brainer. Thank you.
Craig Garland
It’s about being smart. It’s about local resources for local engagement. You look at the forestry industry, for the last 20 years they’ve blocked us out, burned what’s left, craft wood fellers screaming out. In a lot of cases, you can even cut firewood out there and take it. So it’s about using what you have. And also looking at what the demand where the demand is. When I was in the shipping industry. I was watching what was being imported. And what was being exported by us. So maybe if we want to look to the future, maybe we should look at what’s being imported in this state, and can we make it can we produce it ourselves here. The interesting one with the new ship just recently, they’ve gone to an overseas shipyard because it’s cheaper. Well, so what if we spend a bit extra money, all that money that goes into that ship being built here, stays here. You know? So everything it has to be, how can we engage? How can we use what we have? And how can we eliminate importing or bringing in stuff if we can make it here. Olive oil, all of our products was an interesting one in the 80s, I think we’re importing 99% of our olive oil products. And then everybody went mad with the planning and whatever you’re done, know what we’re consuming now in the way of olive oil, but that’s it. It’s simple. Look at what we’re bringing in and what we’re paying for it. And if we can make it and do it better. And quality always sells, always focus on quality, quality will always have a market even in a saturated market.
Liz Hamer
As you know, I come from the west coast and we live off mining. We’ve prospered. I understand I’ve got grandkids and kids who have had to move off the west coast because we don’t do any exploration work, we’re shut out of the ground. You’ve got no idea how much land is in the World Heritage Area locked up. BHP have got an oil rig sitting off our coast, millions, millions of dollars and it’s just sitting in there capped. It’s got gasses, it’s got petroleum, we can be sustainable just here in Tasmania. We don’t have to rely on the mainland. Well we’re sell Hydro to the mainland. 30 years ago, it was unheard of. We’ve got all the resources we need. And we can be sustainable. You know, I’m sure we can work out how to do things that are not going to kill off or extinct species. I want our kids to stay in Tasmania. And I want training, I want surveyors. I want people trained in our state. I don’t want mainlanders coming over here to get work. I want fair pay, the same pay for the same job they’re doing in mining on the mainland. I hope that answers your question. The resources shouldn’t be sold overseas. It’s a exporting a lot of dollars back in your pocket. I’m tired of China trying to come in and own our mines. I’m not discriminatory. I love Chinese people. But they’ve taken all our resources away from us and our kids. Thank you.
Eloise Carr
We have gone over time so with everyone’s permission, maybe one more question. Oh my gosh, this is so awesome. I think Andrew, one or our volunteers helping out tonight. So I’m gonna give it to Andrew.
Andrew (questioner)
It’s already been referred to, the reduction in numbers from 35 to 25 members of the Lower House. My observation is that has resulted in a reduction in governance in Tasmania in that each minister or shadow minister now has six or seven ministries or portfolios they’re responsible for. And there’s hardly anybody left to do the backbench work of actually supervising the public service in providing the services to Tasmania and oversight of the government. What is the attitude of the candidates to increasing the number of seats back to 35?
Brenton Jones
I’m not exactly clear on my party position, I think it’d probably be pretty similar to mine that we are in agreeance that they should be raised. I just look at the case of Braddon, the geographical area that because if elected the area I would have to represent is huge. It’s impossible for me to even campaign and I don’t know intimately what goes on on King Island. So yeah, I reckon King Island should have a representative from King Island who knows that area intimately. And I think Braddon should be broken up into four or five different sub electorates. And so yeah, I’m all for increasing the numbers back up. And I think it’s the only way to get really good, effective, local representation.
Darren Briggs
We’ve already talked about minority government and that helps with representation. Greens policy is definitely to increase the numbers of representatives from 25 back to 35. It’s widely kind of known and suggested that that was reduced to try to reduce the number of independents and smaller parties such as ourselves. So yes, we support going back to 35, for greater representation of our diverse area, There was a select committee report to the House of Assembly, which reported that as a result of going to 25 there’s inadequate representation for the constituents in hindered capacity to debate legislation, and undertake inquiries, develop policy, and conduct scrutiny of government business and it reduced the pool of ministerial talent. So that was a committee made up of the three parties in the house at that time, there were no dissenting members of that committee, they recognised that the costs of increasing the number of representatives would be far outweighed by those benefits. So definitely supporting increase back to 35.
Shane Broad
Yeah, I think a 25 seat Parliament can work if you’ve got 25 good people. Unfortunately, I think that a lot of times that you don’t get 25 good people. And indeed, when you form government, whoever it is, there’s a couple of people who, who are stragglers, and the load gets put on to do individuals. Now, but this is a debate that it really has to be all in or nobody. It’s so easy in a debate like this to is to say, if one side says, Okay, let’s expand to 35, it’s so easy to run the politics and say All you want is more politicians. And that is actually quite a hard debate to have with the public. There was an agreement back in 2010, that everyone recalls when Labor, Liberals and the Greens all agreed to look at expanding back out to 35. And then it died in a ditch because one party which was the Liberal Party jumped and played the politics on this. My personal view, and I mean, the Labor Party does support the concept of going back to 35, the question is When? When do we do that? And how do we do that? I think that personally, I think going back to 35 would be a good thing, for a couple of reasons. One is to increase the talent pool. But one thing that you don’t see in 25 seat parliament, it’s actually really hard to get new people. Because the quota is a little bit higher. When we had a seven seat electorate, there was always probably change, you know, the person who got in at number seven, there was sort of a little bit of turnover in the parliament. I think what we’ve seen for the 25 seat parliament is that there’s been not enough turnover. And people have been hanging in there when they probably should go. I think that going back to 35 would increase the representation, that would be a good idea. The question is, how do we do that? How do we convince the Tasmanian people that more politicians is a good thing? That’s actually very difficult.
Matthew Morgan
Another good question. If you are the elected representative, you’re a very fortunate person and politics is a service industry. And the unfortunate part about is Who are we serving? The people that get back elected to the major parties, the minute they’re elected, they serve the party, they forget about us. The primary person to be served should be the people of Tasmania. So it’s a no brainer, you increase it to 35 you increase the amount of people that is servicing your needs. So it’s… Shane says how do we make that work? How do you make that happen? it’s incumbent upon all of us to demand it. That’s the only way it’ll become a reality. Thank you.
Liz Hamer
(recording ended)
