Winners are grinners – an election round up

Sharon Webb

THE COUNTING is over and anyone with a recent experience of Tasmania’s hospital system will agree with Premier Peter Gutwein’s comment when he announced his cabinet, ‘There is no doubt that our best days are ahead of us.’

Gutwein has his wish, a majority, but with 40 ministries and only nine ministers, the Liberals will be on the treadmill. That’s the price a Tasmanian government pays for keeping the Greens out of Parliament.

So who were winners in the Meander Valley?

Turns out there were quite a few, although not all the winners were elected.

Guy Barnett, Liberal winner

Guy gained a not-too-shabby 14,821 first preferences in the election, the second top candidate in the poll.

For his pains he is Lyons’ only cabinet member with a whopping five blokey portfolios, Trade, Primary Industries and Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction, Resources, and Veterans’ Affairs.

Seems his wife Kate won’t see him many nights at the dinner table.

Susie Bower, Liberal candidate

This Meander Valley councillor has returned to her day job as CEO at the Bell Bay advanced Manufacturing Zone but having been endorsed, she’s looking forward to standing in the next federal election, whenever that is.

Susie’s work is cut out for her because her election votes show she isn’t well known in Lyons yet. Fellow Liberal councillor Stephanie Cameron beat her in every Meander Valley polling booth, except for Elizabeth Town and Susie’s hometown booth of Westbury.

Jen Butler, Labor winner

Once again Jen squeezed into Parliament just ahead of Labor colleague Janet Lambert.

When Labor sorts out its leadership kerfuffle, it will be interesting to see what shadow portfolio Jen gets.

Now that Labor has decided a new prison is not a goer on the Birralee Road site, some anti-prison locals will look to her for support.

Stephanie Cameron, Liberal candidate

A long-term liberal candidate who is quiet in Meander Valley Council meetings, Stephanie gets the gong for doing much better than most people expected in the campaign.

‘It was a busy five weeks but I loved every minute’, she said.

Stephanie may stand again but will make a decision at the time.

Meander polling booth voters

Take a bow Meander, you had the lowest informal vote of any booth in the Meander Valley – 3.9 per cent.

Hot on Meander’s heels was Chudleigh, at 4.6 percent. The average informal vote in the Meander Valley was around 6 per cent.

Mark Shelton, Liberal winner

Mark garnered a respectable 8613 votes in the 2021 election.

His trophy is to lose the Local Government and Police, Fire and Emergency Management Services portfolios to become Speaker of the House.

Yes, he’s the one to shout ‘Ooorder, ooorder!’, and apparently gets an office with the biggest bar fridge in Parliament.

Mark’s job, which he held once before for six months, is to ‘maintain, in an impartial, non-partisan manner, the order and security of the House and restrain unruly or unparliamentary behaviour’. Good luck with that.

John Tucker, Liberal winner

John’s prize this election is to win a seat in his own right – last election he won on a recount after Rene Hidding resigned.

Winning 4691 first preference votes, John didn’t get a portfolio. He’ll just have to cope with being Government Whip and also Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier.

Rebecca White, Labor winner

Technically Rebecca isn’t a Meander Valley politician but as Labor leader she visited the area often enough to be considered a local, as her top-ofthe-poll personal vote of 16,338 first preference votes shows.

We may not see her so often now Rebecca has relinquished her party leadership role. And when we next see her she will have a new family member.