Tasmanians go to the polls next weekend, in an early election brought on by Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockcliff, whose party has fractured during its ten years in office but is currently warning voters not to elect a Labor minority government, which he’s been calling a ‘Coalition of Chaos’.
One of the most beautiful and tragic places on Earth, Tasmania’s genocidal history reportedly inspired H.G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds, and is the location of some of the tallest trees on the planet, as well as the only Australian state with an extinct animal on its number plates and coat of arms.
Although the island has just over half a million people, Tasmania has a number of over-size problems, including a failing health system, highly concentrated media, record numbers of homeless people, and major environmental challenges.
Even more than on the mainland, the local Liberal and Labor parties’ policies are difficult to differentiate, driving an increasing number of voters into the arms of the Greens and the Jacqui Lambie Network. The Hare-Clark voting system makes it difficult for unpopular major parties to sweep the pool.
There’s also a history in the island state of party representatives quitting mid-term, or becoming independents if they can’t get what they want, making the political situation even more complex.
As the last elected Liberal leader to remain standing in Australia, the stakes are high for former farmer Jeremy Rockcliff in this election, having been elevated suddenly in April 2022 after the sudden departure of previous Premier Peter Gutwein.
Chocolate!
The Rockcliff family are known in Tasmania for their creation of a giant fibreglass and concrete potato called ‘Kenny’, in the rural community of Sassafras, where the premier still lives. Now he has other big things in mind. While largely ignoring the substantive issues in this election, Mr Rockliff has been going hard on the bread and circuses angle, or in this case, chocolate factory tours and an AFL stadium.
Those who remember Cadbury’s low key chocolate factory tours in the past are now being urged to dream big, Willy Wonka style, with a ‘chocolate experience’ (including the world’s biggest chocolate fountain). ‘If you build it, they will come!’ Also in the premier’s grand vision, a $715 million-plus AFL stadium is to dominate the choice real estate of Hobart’s Macquarie Point.
In Liberal terms, Jeremy Rockliff is a moderate (he supported the Voice to Parliament for example), but he has not succeeded in pulling his divided party together, so far.
Labor leader Rebecca White, who also grew up on a farm, has said if elected she’ll improve life for struggling renters, expand the health system and cut power prices, but her earlier bold policy to do something serious about Tasmania’s pokie epidemic has been firmly shelved, and neither she nor the premier have announced any plans to do something about the behaviour of private companies destroying Tasmania waterways and Antarctic krill (particularly via toxic fish farms), or halting the heavily subsidised destruction of the state’s remaining forests, despite their national and global significance.
Kill stuff and multiply
From a mainland perspective, those whose ancestors were sent to Tasmania as convicts seem to resent the strange and unique beauty of the place, destroying it at every opportunity, while more recent arrivals have waged some of the world’s most significant environmental campaigns on the island, including the battles to save Lake Pedder, the Franklin River, and the Tarkine.
The ideological and spiritual struggle between these two groups define Tasmanian politics, with figures like Bob Brown, Eric Abetz, Christine Milne and Brian Harradine emerging periodically from the maelstrom to affect the national conversation as well. Unfortunately, nothing seems to really change south of Bass Strait.
Like the thylacine last century, unique species being nudged into oblivion in Tasmania right now, such as the Maugean skate and the swift parrot, are apparently of zero concern to the major parties, who are focused instead on keeping the minor parties out of the contest as much as possible. The Greens have been alone in calling attention to these issues.
With an extra ten seats up for grabs this time (a restoration of the earlier system of representation), some kind of minority government, or at least a very large crossbench, seems highly likely. Tasmania goes to the polls on Saturday 23 March.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
Long ago, he did work experience in Parliament House with Mungo MacCallum.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
