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Letters to the Editor
The Decay of Democracy in Tasmania
Strangle our democracy
and the result you will see.
Is that absolute power
The first symptom of our current malaise is the gradual change to the composition of the Legislative Council. A generation ago it was mostly independents, now the majority belong to the major parties. The Legislative council needs to be an independent house of review, not a rubber stamp to the ruling party of the day.
The Tasmanian Government, and this is the second symptom, appears to have a preference for conducting its business behind closed doors. Decisions are presented to the parliament as necessary, inevitable, a fait accompli. Favoured projects are fast-tracked, scientific and economic reports are ignored and public comment curtailed. For example, a recent exposé showed that there were twice as many applications for developments in National Parks being considered than had been made public. More generally, documents requested under Freedom of Information are not supplied in a timely fashion or are so heavily redacted that they are useless. Lack of transparency is the order of the day.
NSW introduced an excellent Independent Commission Against Corruption. Its effectiveness was seen immediately, including by the government that conceived it. As a consequence, no other government will ever permit anything like it. In the absence of any desire for transparency, a much needed, powerful ICAC in Tasmania will never be initiated.
The current Liberal government, to give a third symptom, has been attempting to pass draconian anti-protest laws for some time. Sadly, Labor has pledged to introduce similar laws with mandatory jail sentences. Despite the ‘public safety and protection of businesses’ rhetoric, these laws are largely designed to stop citizens standing up and calling out corruption and injustice. Mandatory sentencing laws are a direct attack on the independence of our judiciary. The result could well be that our police and courts become tax-payer funded extensions of the forestry and salmon farming industries.
The final symptom is the implied threat from our Premier, Peter Gutwein, regarding a hung parliament. Unfortunately, this has been echoed by the opposition. Neither party says they will consider doing a deal with minor parties to form government. It would be different if the Devil himself were offering his services. And the implied threat? If we don’t vote him back in as a majority government then we will have another election. Perhaps we will continue going back to the polls until we, the silly voters, learn how to do our job properly.
Coalition governments manage to operate in several European countries. Why not here? A hung parliament might just produce the best possible outcome for Tasmania provided the coalition partners don’t spend their time undermining each other. Tasmanians need to demand that their elected politicians represent the interests of Tasmania first and their political parties a very distant second.
The citizens of Tasmania get to wield their democratic power most sharply once every four years. That’s right, it should be every four years, not at the government’s whim. Here is our opportunity to speak out for democracy and all it stands for: equal, honest, transparent representation for every citizen. Other countries have fought wars to gain their democracy, we were gifted ours. Perhaps now is the time for Tasmania’s citizens to ‘take up arms’. By this I mean that every citizen must fiercely hold their elected members to account and demand the service they voted for.
When we celebrate ANZAC Day we remember the many service men and women who have fought and died to protect the democratic way of life that most of us take for granted. What would these people think of today’s democracy?
In the lead-up to this Saturday, I will be studying the policies of the minor parties and independent candidates and bypassing the major parties altogether because the ends do not always justify the means.
– Michael Meaney, Sheffield
Liblab again refuse to acknowledge the environment
I recently attended the Premier Debate at the Country Club Casino in Launceston. I was not impressed by the conversation between Peter Gutwein and Rebecca White. It is ludicrous that there was absolutely no discussion about the environment, especially as we are in the centre of a global climate emergency and nobody is talking about it. Climate change is going to affect everyone on the planet sooner rather than later. I will not be voting Labor or Liberals as they try to out-right-wing each other. How can we still be ignoring the environment in 2021?
– Felicity Holmes, Tinderbox
Whose Future?
Basslink.
In the election Saturday I would urge Tasmanians to think about whose future the Liberal Party want to secure.
The prosperity of regional areas was built on local access to the local resources. We lost the sawmill industry because the forests were wood-chipped for foreign investors’ profit. We lost the income from the fishing fleet by selling the licenses for foreign investors’ profit. We lost our cheap energy to the National Energy Market for foreign investors’ profit. We are losing our farmlands which are being sold off for foreign investors’ profit.
We now find out that a vote for the Liberal Party will be a vote for our coastal towns having salmon ponds dumping raw sewerage into the sea for foreign investors’ profit. We will also be getting wind-farms and transmission lines destroying the scenic beauty of the region, needed by our tourism operators, for
foreign investors’ profit.
A vote for the Liberal Party will secure the future for foreign investors’ profit but it won’t leave much for the prosperity of future generations.
Vote independent to stop the rot.
– Norm Vanderfeen, Wynyard
Imported pests
A recent episode of Backroads on the ABC featured the Great Lake area. While it’s always welcome to see coverage of Tasmania by the national broadcaster – anyone else pine for the days of having our own 7.30 report? – the angle was abysmal. The reporter Lisa Millar spent the imported episode fawning over animal killers as if they were heroes. As if rabbits, deer and trout are not imported pests that don’t belong in our landscapes and waterways. And the sheep, horses and cattle that go along with the silly nostalgic image of graziers as pioneers.
‘Irene says that a big part of the history of this place is wrapped up with the shepherds who roamed these parts since the early 1800s’. Yeah, I’d say two hundred years is but a blip against the thousands of years of successful Aboriginal stewardship by the lairmairrener people. If we’re going to get on with reconciliation, we need to give up the outdated idea that settler colonialists and their invasive pest animals were anything but a blight. This kind of daft reporting ‘acknowledges’ the first people and then proceeds to ignore them altogether. That is not acknowledgement, it’s just a totally empty gesture.
– James Christou, Launceston
Think beyond the next election
Dear Liberal and Labor parties,
Thank you for your complete inability to acknowledge the seriousness of this planet’s climate crisis. Thanks for propping up an antiquated and doomed native forest industry with hard-earned taxpayer money. Thank you for your inattention and dismissive attitude towards the biggest environmental issues this world faces. Thank you because I know who NOT to vote for next Saturday. Without a robust discussion on the state of the environment you have shown where your priorities lie.
There are no jobs on a dead planet.
– Colette Harmsen, Tinderbox
Pirate Parliament
The question Mr Gutwein must address is whether he revealed to the Governor that Sue Hickey had given him a letter stating clearly that she would support his government and hence he still had the confidence of the House.
If he did indeed omit this in their meeting, he has in effect mislead both the Governor of Tasmania and by implication our Head of State, the Queen. Had he done so it seems likely Her Excellency would have requested him to test his position in Parliament just as Robin Gray had been obliged to many years ago and we would not be having this unnecessary election. Perhaps he should have the grace to kneel before her as pirates of the past have done and sing;
We yield at once, with humbled mien,
Because, with all our faults, we love our Queen.
– Ian Broinowski, Battery Point
Mansell’s Faux Woke Politics
Shearwater migration. Image courtesy Duade Paton.
Michael Mansell’s argument that the mass killing of shearwater chicks is a Tasmanian aboriginal (Lutruwita or Palawa) tradition that should be continued is not valid. Cannibalism was practiced in Australasia in past times in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and this horrid practice was stopped. Please see New Zealand historian Professor Paul Moon’s 2008 book entitled This Horrid Practice. Cannibalism has been stopped in Australasia and likewise mutton birding should also be promptly stopped in Tasmania.
Mansell’s claim that Tasmanian aboriginal marriages and corroborees were held in honour of eating shearwaters and 60,000 eggs were eaten before December each year defies belief. It is clear that Mansell has conflated a rich and diverse ancient Palawa culture with mutton birding, while, the motive is simply to profit from the mass slaughter of shearwater chicks in the cultural guise of the Palawa.
The ongoing animal cruelty of mutton birding is a blight on all Tasmanians and Mansell’s faux woke politics is largely responsible for the continuation of this monstrous anachronism. It is clear that Mansell has become a relic of a past Western culture of animal cruelty, specifically the sealers of Bass Strait.
It is time to move into the humanitarian twenty-first century, recognise the rich and diverse history of Palawa culture and people by protecting the native shearwaters in the Furneaux group of Tasmania. By supporting nature-based tourism in the Furneaux group, the Palawa descendants in Tasmania will be benefit greatly from the protection of shearwaters and other native wildlife.
– Dr Graeme Heald (Anderson), Somerset
Letters are welcome on any Tasmanian subject, up to 300 words (we’ve allowed some quite long ones this time as a pre-election special). Letters should be concise, respectful of others and rely on evidence where necessary. No links please! Letter writers should provide a real name and town / suburb. Letters can be send on behalf of organisations or groups. Submit letters in the body of an email to letters@tasmaniantimes.com
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