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Labor Snubs Circular Economy Huon; Enders Flounders; Woodruff Shines
As a volunteer contributing editor and an ‘up and coming’ gumshoe investigative journalist, this is my third rewrite in 24 hours of what should have been a very straight forward report on the Circular Economy Huon (CEH) Election event held in the Huonville Town Hall last Tuesday 20 April.
The weekly edition of the local Huon News published yesterday gave it 430 words over four columns, complete with a smiling pic of the key players. The article covered the when and where, the reasons behind why the committee had invited Toby Thorpe, Labor Party, Bec Enders, Liberal Party and Rosalie Woodruff, Greens party, to speak, threw in a few quotes and promoted the next meeting of the CEH at the relatively new local community Hub in Huonville.
Article published in the Huon News 28 April 2021.
As one of the 50 community members who attended the 90 minute rather cold Town Hall meeting, (despite the electricity guzzling wall mounted bar heaters running at full stick), I was eager to better understand how each of these three candidates, if elected, will transform southern Tasmania into a thriving circular economy with a well-considered integrated transport plan for the future and a world leading solution to organic waste management.
They had been given a few weeks’ notice of the topics after all.
Having again listened through the painfully droll audio recording, the ums, the arghs, the repeats, the often sing song delivery, and then transcribing it into 12,000 somewhat intelligible words,
it was again evident this event was just so damned boring … and besides, who really cares?
The CEH are a busy group of volunteers in the Huon Valley who, according to their home page:
“Work together with the community, business and government to make better use of our resources, minimise waste and create a happier, stronger, more sustainable economy,” a mission statement of sorts.
Not everyone is into saving our planet, but this group of seriously hard-working and long suffering volunteers with a combined countless years of knowledge and experience between them, are passionate about the big issues of climate change, transport, waste and energy facing southern Tasmania.
But seriously who is listening and how can these so few people in a local community influence in any way the actions of the next political party to govern our tiny Island population predicted to reach 525,678 by the end of 2021, and growing.
My first draft was headed up Labor Snubs Circular Economy in Favour of Local Footy. Catchy perhaps, intriguing perhaps … read on for the salacious details.
Toby Thorpe.
And why? Because on the night the Public Officer, Gerry White, opened the meeting with an apology that Toby Thorpe had cancelled at short notice the day before, and that they were unable to find another Franklin Labor candidate – desipite their being another five of them – to step in. There was no explanation offered to the committee and when Tasmanian Times later contacted Thorpe, he alluded to what might have been a campaign meeting clash, but had no clear answers to offer. White was decidedly disappointed in the last-minute cancellation. After all this is another mob of volunteers who just want the best for our local community and pulling together free entry events is no small task in these COVID times.
TT has pursued Thorpe and the Labor Party office over the past week with phone calls and emails to seek a reason as a statement from Thorpe. When I finally got Thorpe on his mobile last Thursday he advised he was busy door knocking at the time and would get to his ‘admin duties’ that afternoon and get back to me. He did not.
After having to leave a number of messages at the Labor Party office, (budget cuts already in effect as there is no receptionist or media officer is seems), the Admin Officer came back to TT and said “Is it something I might be able to help with?” to which I again repeated what I had twice left as a voice message, and written in emails, “we are seeking a statement for publication, please.”
A week on, another email and a phone call and not a whisper, so time to get something out there.
I then tried tagging Thorpe on his Facebook and made a comment about my dismay at not being able to contact him, or anyone from the Party office. A friend noting my plight sent me a screen short of a Labor campaign meeting.
It revealed that Thorpe attended a campaign meeting with his fellow Labor candidates at the Huonville Lions Football Club around the same time on the same evening. The reason why CEH could not attract substitute for Thorpe was obviously because they were all at the local footy club gig.
As the week unfolded it was then obvious why Thorpe had let White and the CEH committee down.
Labor, if elected, are promising a gratuitous $250,000 cash splash to ‘upgrade’ the existing lighting of the Franklin sports oval (with the Liberals offering $150,000). According to another article in the local Huon News, the existing lighting system is less than adequate. Sport is important but on this occasion apparently burning up more power is not a problem.
The irony behind all this, apart from the affront to the hardworking CEH committee, is that Thorpe is the recipient of the 2021 Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year, and has been well lauded for his success in areas of climate action, global energy, sustainability and is an advocate for youth empowerment.
At a bit of a stretch one could consider Thorpe to be a local Greta Thunberg minus the pigtails.
His now involvement with the Labor Party’s proposed lighting upgrade of a sports oval is fine, but he might have tried to reconcile his (former?) views on energy use and climate change issues. It begs the question why has Thorpe gone with Labor – a question TT posed in the emails, but again, no response.
Thorpe’s decision to run with Labor is of course his. As to why, we may never know; perhaps Thorpe is a sacrificial lamb for a party that is struggling with how to support climate change issues, energy and transport. And of course, Thorpe is the youngest candidate to ever stand for election in Tasmania and as Young Australian of the Year, this is a move that is sure to bring with it some youth vote which will of course boost the overall Labor preference votes in the seat of Franklin.
I am not wanting to cane Thorpe for his lack of communications. Running for a seat, campaigning generally and door knocking is gruelling, but this saga does need to be sheeted home to the Labor Party from whom there has been no formal apology, or indeed even an explanation provided to the committee.
Enders is on leave of absence from her Council duties until next week when the vote count over the weekend will decide her fate as to whether she wins a seat in parliament, or is in the potentially embarrassing situation of reflecting on whether she can actually return to her mayoral duties. Legally of course Enders still holds the top job unless she is elected and then she must resign immediately.
The word is out that there are some hopefuls in the wings ready to take a run at the vacant Mayor position, and her departure, for whatever reason, would also vacate a councillor seat, all to be decided with a new by election. The other issue Enders will face, should she fail in her run into Parliament, is the ongoing support and trust from the community along with any support from her fellow councillors, which has already been strained this past twelve months or more.
This has all come about very quickly. The question of whether the mayor should return is being discussed over coffee, covered in social media groups in both the Derwent and Huon Valley. There has also been some community backlash about them taking their allowances which came to a head earlier this month when a Liberal spokeswoman said:
“Council allowances are paid monthly in arrears and both have requested not to receive their April payments.”
The big question being discussed in the Huon Valley community, following in many cases the shock decision to possibly quit her four year mayoral term half way through, is her apparent sudden changed political views.
A TT reader made this comment only this morning to an article we published last month about Enders shock decision:
“If Enders is not successful in her bid for state government and chooses to remain as mayor of HVC, the statement that
‘I’m an independent candidate who is impartial. I’m not affiliated with any other candidate, nor political party’,
should be raised in Council now that it is clearly refuted.”
At the CEH meeting, Enders closed her comments with:
“The reason why I am interested in standing for state government politics, is because I am exposed and have been for the last two years, to a lot of matters that have been raised by businesses and community about state government. And so, the reason why I put my hand up is because I want to be that same voice, to be actually sitting at a cabinet table, to be able to take those voices directly to the cabinet table. So, discussions that I’ve had here tonight and [with the] discussions that I’ve had, I’ve often been involved with the Circular Economy Huon, I understand their mandate.
All I can say is that I, I’ve always represented the community businesses as the Mayor of the Huon Valley. And that is, that is the only reason why I have decided on state government and I have chosen this particular party, because my values do align with their values.”
My initial version of this opinion piece quoted some of Enders discussion around transport and waste, but as I stated earlier it was just so boring. It was political waffle. Laid out on her table she had papers, reports, stapled bundles and at one stage was sifting through same, all the while reminding us she is not yet elected and therefore does not really have any policies before her. There was talk similar to her mayoral days about collaboration, getting around the table, pulling together reports, looking at budgets, applying for grants and making submissions.
When Enders explained she is not yet elected and is therefore not really across the Liberal policies, the Chair reminded then her they were seeking her personal thoughts, should she be elected, on these circular economy matters.
I could cut and paste from the transcript of the meeting and the answers to questions are all well considered, articulate and not surprising. Woodruff comes from years of experience at both local government and parliamentary level, and as you would assume, she is a well-polished public speaker who does not pull her punches.
In reality, to be fair, it should probably have been a lineup of O’Byrne, Petrusma and Woodruff, but getting to know where Thorpe and Enders are placed with matters of a circular economy was a good concept, even if it did fail.
Woodruff commandeered her share of the head table with her oversized woman’s handbag in full view. She was careful with her body language alongside Enders, she carefully bit her tongue and refrained on a few occasions whilst looking away into the audience. A few subtle jibes were made and there was some awkward laughter – but then they are from opposing parties.
Woodruff summarised her presentations with:
Action on climate change is urgent. And it’s really about holding your political representatives to account.
When you vote for people, yeah, Bec’s a nice person, I’m a nice person, we’re local people you’ve seen us, but fundamentally, Bec is not standing as an independent, she is standing as a member of the Liberal Party, I’m standing as a member of the Greens, Toby Thorpe is not here, he is standing as a member of the Labor Party.
It’s about holding those parties to account on these policies you care about on climate change. It is really critical that the Labor and Liberal Party stop acting on gas. So bottom line, we’ve got a federal election coming up the coal and gas lobby are being funded, are being supported to the hilt by both of those of parties.
Labor just yesterday made an announcement in The Australian, that they’re going to go in longer and harder, even past 2050, a commitment for continuing. So unless we stop that, so really, you know, if we care about our future, we have to put all of our energy into putting the blowtorch on those parties. The Liberal Party, the Labor Party and anybody else who supports coal and gas, because we can’t keep doing that. So I think really, that’s that’s where I see that’s, you know, that’s why, you know, I’m doing what I can, I’m standing for a party, it’s pretty clear what our position is.
So I’ve learned from being in politics is it’s not about people. Everyone’s nice in politics, it is about actions. It’s about holding people to account and parties to account for the actions they take promises mean nothing unless the actions that follow them.”
Mayor Bec Enders and Dr Rosalie Woodruff in the rather austere Huonville Town Hall
Perhaps the most insightful comment for the evening came from a woman in the audience.
“We’re talking here about trying to come up with collaboration on points where we can all agree. I have absolutely no confidence that the moment a Liberal or Labor government get in, that they will work with any other parties, not when both of them have stated categorically that they refuse to govern in a minority. That means they refuse to deal with one another in the room. I think that’s anti-democratic. [audience applause]
And for them to stand there and refuse to work with others then they are basically objecting to the will of people, and we may as well not vote, we may as well boycott.
And what’s wrong with Gutwein governing in the minority. That happens all over the world.,
What happens instead is that people come in with 40 or 45% of the vote, and somehow think they have a mandate to do absolutely everything and reject the other 55 to 60% of the people who voted for a different party.
That is not democracy.”