Sharon Webb

TASMANIA’S 389,432 voters have decided. The Liberal Party was so good in government that they want more of the same.

More of the same means protective decisions around COVID-19, possible reform on land tax and election funding, pokies draining family incomes, a new prison near Westbury, improved school buildings, more teacher aides and better football grounds.

According to election campaign propaganda, it also means a ‘blitz’ on elective surgery.

But the Liberals appear to have no solutions to sick and injured people sitting for hours in hospitals’ A&E.

No solutions to ambulance ramping, to people being shoved in store rooms because of a lack of ward space, to Tasmanians waiting two years for a colonoscopy done within a month in Sydney.

Both Sarah Courtney and Michael Ferguson, while re-elected in Bass, should surely have got voters’ message that their roles in Tasmania’s health mess has been well and truly noticed.

That Ms Courtney’s vote is down around six per cent is a comment on her lack of credibility as health minister. Ferguson’s 15 per cent swing against him reflects voters’ scorn for his previous efforts in the health portfolio.

Premier Peter Gutwein’s personal vote justifies his view that going to the polls a year ahead of time was the right decision to try and grab a Liberal victory.

His huge personal swing of almost 25 per cent shows voters heard his message that he got them through the COVID-19 outbreak crisis, therefore he should lead them through another four years of government.

The future of Labor leader Rebecca White isn’t so clear.

Voters’ support for her as a candidate isn’t in doubt. In 2021 she topped the poll in Lyons, just as she did in 2018.

But David O’Byrne has snapped at her heels for years and losing a second election means Ms White’s Labor leadership is in doubt.

Ms White’s performance shows she isn’t a leader. She doesn’t have the fire.

She took too long to get into her stride in the five-week campaign, only showing her mettle in the final two weeks, especially in the Mercury debate against Gutwein in Hobart.

And Labor had no theme once they’d exhausted the shambles that is TAFE Tasmania.

Empty Liberal infrastructure promises on the Midland Highway, Charles Street bridge, Hobart’s Southern Outlet and the Bridgewater Bridge coming to naught could have been fodder, but Labor messaging was weak. They took no weapons to battle.

Liberal messaging was slick, in comparison. Using strategies and some personnel from their usual government media processes, they kept up a stream of statements, promises and candidate photo opportunities.

But it was control freak territory.

At the Campbell Town candidate launch, the only person allowed to speak to media was Peter Gutwein. Every candidate, even their highest flying former ministers, was muzzled.

Gutwein stamped any discussion of the proposed Westbury prison as a no-go area. His response to a question on whether the election sought a mandate on the issue was a firm, ‘We’ve made a decision to have the prison there’.

When a candidate was said to have been telling voters that the prison decision was firm but that candidate would help Westbury to get the best deal possible, a Liberal media officer refused to respond.

‘The Premier doesn’t want to talk about the prison’, he said.

Literature and movies are full of tragic heroes, and over the next four years we’ll see if Gutwein is one.

The tragic hero definition is specific, whether it’s Oedipus, Macbeth, Jay Gatsby or Ned Stark from Game of Thrones.

Despite extraordinary qualities, a fatal flaw (pride, vanity, jealousy) brings their downfall.

Tasmanians recognised Peter Gutwein’s qualities during COVID but it wasn’t enough for him. He twitched with the need to be recognised as a leader in his own right, so called an election a year early. The unpreparedness of other parties was a challenge to the democratic process, but the rights of voters weren’t Gutwein’s concern.

The next four years will prove whether Peter Gutwein is a COVID hero or tragic hero.

He will need to keep the religious extremists in his ranks under control and fulfil on infrastructure. Removing the hapless Michael Ferguson from that role would be a good start.

Most of all, Peter Gutwein must understand Tasmanians will not stand seeing their relatives and friends in pain or dying so that he can tout a solid budget.