Sunday, January 19th ....

I know it's been a week since my last post but life is quiet at the moment and there's not much to say. Our Premier has just announced a date for the state election so we're in that campaign period when the news is all about the nonsense that politicians save up for the campaign trail.

Tasmania, of course, is dying on its feet. There's not the leadership here to bite the bullet and build a modern economy to carry us into the future. Politicians understand they can only gain votes if they hark back to the days of high industrialisation and raping of the forests. Neither of the two major parties is brave enough to make the decisions necessary to change the outlook of the state. Labor came close through their power-sharing deal with the Greens during the current parliament. A Forestry Agreement was drawn up, tourism was promoted, big decisions were made about improving education, and so on. But, when the back is to the wall, self-interest takes over.

In preparation for the election, the Premier has 'sacked' the Green ministers, knowing that her supporters see the Greens as the enemy rather than the Liberal Party. She has also said that, in future, no deals will be made with the Greens. The Liberals are worse; they've said they will only govern if they have a majority. They've also said they will undo the advances made in re-structuring Forestry, and will review the changes made to improve education.

It's madness. A likely scenario is that neither of the two big parties will get a majority and, because of their stupidity, they have locked themselves out of power. We only have 25 seats in the Lower House, 10 Liberal, 10 ALP and 5 Greens. it's a pretty small pool and hard to form a decent Cabinet if you've only got 10 to draw on. You can be sure that 2 or 3 from each party are untalented party hacks pre-selected because nobody else showed interest. It's depressing.

Politics is the art of compromise and good politicians need to keep an open mind. The nonsense we hear that politicians can never change their minds is just that. Intelligent people change their minds all the time as new information becomes available.

Tasmania should be looking to Malta for ideas. With a population of just 400,000, Malta has an advanced economy and a high standard of living. It doesn't depend on limestone mining any more, or income from being a British naval base. It attracts 1.2 million tourists every year, and wealthy retirees from mainland Europe. It's embraced the boom in modern communication and is a haven for people who can work from anywhere. Tasmania, on the other hand, is the basket-case of Australia. Generations of poorly-educated people have learnt to be satisfied with poorly-paid jobs with no future. We have a reputation for being surly with tourists and are the butt of jokes from our cousins on the big island. Wake up, Tasmania, or you'll sink into the sea.

There was one interesting occurrence when the announcement of the election date was made on ABC TV. As the announcer was breaking the news, there was flash of bush fire information across the bottom of the screen, so the combined effect was:

Tasmanian Premier, Lara Giddings, has called a state election for March 15th. Authorities say that leaving now is the safest option.

Wonderful! Of course, the local Federal liberal politician gleefully posted it on Facebook. Silly man! Authorities are also saying that the Liberals are likely to win the election, a very good reason for leaving, if their announced policies are anything to go by.