Whither Rene ...By JASON LOVELLThe federal election rolled over us all again last weekend and won't return for another three years, thank god. While the teeth-gnashing and wailing from the left will be almost unbearable for the duration, I'm sure the inevitable hubris and rank arrogance from the other side will do much to balance the federal political concerto. To those considering wrist surgery or fleeing overseas, I can only say that the sun still rose on Sunday morning and it was a ripper day. Actually, to those considering flight to another country, why are you telling me about it? - stop whinging and just piss off. Wimps. The electoral cycle now shifts back to state politics and I think the main issue of interest, once again, is the performance and potential of the Tasmanian Liberal Party and its leader. Rene Hidding's incompetance has never been more obvious than during the last week, a week in which he repeatedly attempted and repeatedly failed to ape Darth Howard's footwork on forestry prior to the federal election. Rene's subsequent attempts to link the electoral fortunes of the Tasmanian Liberals to those of the federal coalition are even more pathetic than his inept wielding of Johnny's wedge. Rene initially tried to insert Howard's masterfully cynical forests wedge into Paulie, but this tactic was rendered completely ineffective by Lennon's choice to support the forest industry over and above his own party's best interests; Rene Hidding is no John Howard and Paul Lennon is certainly not Mark Latham. Following this failure, Rene again tried to copy the PM by re-interpreting last week's promise to review state Liberal forestry policy if even one federal ALP seat was held in Tasmania. When the ALP held three seats and the combined ALP/Green vote topped 54 per cent, it seemed that Rene would be forced to launch the review and that perhaps the Tasmanian Liberals would finally unveil the moderate forest policy they need to move forward. But no, that's too much to expect from the fool holding the Liberal reins. Instead of taking the golden opportunity to throttle back Liberal forest policy, Rene has taken Howard's path and will now try and differentiate the forest policies by making his party more supportive of the industry than even the Tasmanian ALP. So when the Tasmanian ALP supports a pulp mill, Rene needs to support a bigger one .. or two. When they support industry access to old growth forests, Rene will need to support extended access ... logging in national parks anyone? And when the ALP moves to make the forest industry more accountable or to phase out old growth logging in 2010, Rene will no doubt accuse them of trying to end all logging in Tasmania, or some similar emotive garbage. Its all very reminscent of the Clarke/Dawe election campaign interview between "John Howard" and "Mark Latham" in which the two debated sport: "I like sport"; "I like sport too"; "I like sport more"; "not more than me - nobody could like sport more than I do"; "well I do, I like sport more than you," and on it goes. The Tasmanian Opposition leader's lesson of choice from the federal election is clear: whoever gives the most support to the forest industry will win. Nevermind that John Howard just used the issue and the industry itself to play wedge politics with the entire state of Tasmania. Nevermind that this wedge has deepened division in Tasmania, causing some in the forest industry to abuse, spit on and/or assault those handing out how to vote cards during the election. Nevermind that the Tasmanian ALP already has the most slavish policy of forest industry support in Australia. And nevermind that polling taken before the release of Latham's forest package revealed that the ALP would lose Bass and Braddon anyway. Nope, it seems Rene's mind is made up - the end justifies the means. Like many others on so many issues, I disagree with Rene; in my opinion the most relevant lesson from the federal election is that Latham's "inexperience" made him an easy target and cost him dearly. The Tasmanian Liberals need to ponder this fact - a newly installed leader needs a decent amount of time to establish themselves in the minds of the voters. tasmaniantimes.com social and political commentator Jason Lovell is a former student of Herr, Kirkpatrick and Felmingham. He also works as a contractor to the Tasmanian Government and several Government Business Enterprises and lives on 20 acres in the Derwent Valley.
RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? Thursday, October 14, 2004 |