Given Tasmania’s precarious finances, the current crop of career politicians have failed the Tasmanian people. To right the ship we need less professional politicians hell bent on spending their life in politics. The professional politicians who plot a career from student to apparatchik to adviser to MP to post-political life on a board or as a government consultant. Instead we need more people that have had a career and life outside the political sphere.
I am therefore calling for a maximum of twelve year terms in the parliament. We are not being served well by career politicians who remain in parliament by name recognition and little else. A proper performance assessment against their generous salaries would reveal serious mediocrity from many of our parliamentarians.
I ask Ms Giddings, Mr McKim and Mr Hodgman, to support the compulsory retirement of all Politicians after twelve years of service, excluding the leader and deputy leader of each party, to make sure the Tasmanian parliament doesn’t become an expensive retirement village.
By limiting the amount of time politicians can serve, politics may then be looked on as public service, where you get elected, do your time, rather than a career where you think the worst thing that could happen to Tasmania is if you lose your seat.
With incumbency being such an advantage in our electoral system, having more elections without a sitting member will increase the chances of a high calibre candidate standing by evening up the odds. It might actually encourage the parties to pick better candidates and think about succession planning. I would hope we may even interest younger candidates to participate.
Consistently I have been hearing from people, as I have doorknocked, saying that politicians used to stand for something. “I’m sure they went into it for the right reasons”, however the process in the end defeats them. Having a greater level of renewal will go part of the way to providing a more vibrant and constructive parliament.
We need courageous free thinkers, capable of making decisions for the benefit of future generations, people who are prepared to put the interests of Tasmania before their own personal re election success.
When it comes down to it, longevity is not a measure of success, often it’s the reverse.
Responsibility for this election comment is taken by John Forster:
Web: Thereluctantpolitician.com
