Chris Harries
JON (16), whether or not Mr Bartlett is corrupt or just happy to go along with the status quo is almost a moot point in the scheme of things. Nor should we just think about how to get a change of horses at the next state election.
Yes, Labor’s entrenched power has gone to its head. And, yes, the Greens are failing to strike a strong chord with an increasingly disenfranchised and alienated electorate. And, yes, the Liberals seem generally happy with being in Opposition. But why?
If the larger community was aroused, alarmed, excited…. then an election could possibly turn things around. But, let’s face it, Labor is likely to be re-elected unchanged. More of the same. If Lennon could do it, then Bartlett can do it more easily.
But this is not about party politics it is about our flagging, desultory political culture. Labor just happens to be at the helm. It’s what’s at the heart of politics that really counts.
The question is: Why oh why – after so much hard campaigning, economic analysis and highly spirited niche business development – has Tasmania regressed so much in the past 8 years? Why has the bold vision of a clean green state evaporated, especially when that strategy was serving the state economy so well? Why has the government decided to veer in the opposite direction, now even weakening planning laws to facilitate this becoming an industrial estate?
It is now clear that an overt decision has been made in government (but disengeneously not communicated to the electorate) to disassemble the clean and green pathway and pull out all stops that have been ‘getting in the way’ of opportunistic, laissez faire business development. Getting rid of our ‘The Natural State’ number plate message was very symbolic – it signalled a strident change in philosophical direction. But it was merely one step along the way.
We have to own up to it, this massive regression in vision is our massive failing. We have to question why we have failed. Why has the Tasmanian political outlook become so stultified that it will complacently re-elect such a rinky-dink outfit into office?
Another few years and there will be no turning back because the rich opportunities that Tasmania possesses will either be liquidated or too tarnished to have value. As it is, our economy’s claim to be clean and green can be rightfully challenged as fraudulent in many quarters.
I was on top of Mount Ossa two days ago meeting up with an endless throng of mainland family groups streaming through the park. To their dismay, the majestic vista from the top of Tasmania was almost lost in the smoke haze emanating from NW regeneration burns. They were so disillusioned.
This is the real Tasmania. This is the way our politicians want it. This is what decades of environmental-economics campaigning has produced. A grand farce.
The next state election may be vital but not in the current debating climate. It can only be so if a renewed, forward thinking vision can be projected that stimulates a profound shake-up in the political culture. Doing more of the same will produce more of the same. We have to do things differently.
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