Marilyn is booked in to have her pacemaker fitted tomorrow. She has a preliminary meeting with the specialist this morning so we are in our hotel room trying to get organised. Everyone seems rather blasé about what I imagine is a pretty significant procedure. 'You'll pop in on Thursday and we'll pop in the pacemaker and you'll be able to go home after a few hours'. She doesn't even have to go into the hospital; the clinic is in the Woolworth's building!
Anyway, it's nice to be back in Hobart. We drove down yesterday evening and were surprised at the amount of roadworks we passed. Certainly there were some dodgy areas which needed attention but what is happening is way beyond that. At the 2013 elections the Libs promised that the Midlands Highway would be upgraded to four lanes. With the small size of of our population and relatively low amount of traffic the general feeling was that it would never happen; just another election promise which will pass into oblivion.
But, against all the odds, it is happening. I can't help thinking that, with all the infrastructure that needs to be built in Australia, Tasmania's Midlands Highway would not be top of my list. And it didn't do the Libs much good anyway. The four candidates elected in 2013, on the back of that promise, only lasted one term. Of course, they've all been found good jobs in the system, but they're no longer in parliament.
The lesson to be learned is that it doesn't pay to make long-term promises in Tasmania. Our memories are too short and our gratitude too fickle.
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