So many aspects of Richard Butler's resignation from the position of Tasmanian Governor this week have been covered brilliantly on the Tasmanian Times website and elsewhere that it's hard for this contributor to add any more to the commentary, but I'll try...
At its core, the Butler episode is a tale of hubris writ large, an abject lesson in hypocrisy and blighted vision unfulfilled. But much deeper than this, the rise and fall of Richard Butler reveals much about the so called New Tasmania under Paul Lennon, it's unwillingness to embrace change and its contempt for outsiders.
Butler's fall from grace and the method of his disposal is symptomatic of a Tasmania that rather than changing, has steadfastly clung to its insular ways, Butler didn't fit with Lennon's vision [or indeed our own] and so he's gone.
Richard Butler needed to be cognisant of the island mentality when accepting the position. Unfortunately he played into our hands by maintaining a healthy contempt for those he deemed below himself and appeared oblivious to the outcry accompanying such pomposity and his ignorance of the many cherished conventions of the role until it finally brought him undone.
In the end the public saw the Butler appointment for what it was, a plum job for an ALP hack. It speaks volumes for Bacon's blighted vision that a pompous personality such as Butler should become the Tasmanian Governor, the events of recent days show the facade to be crumbling, the vision in tatters.
Much has been made of the role of the Hobart Mercury in all this, while the Mercury has restored faith amongst those of us long tired of its simpering treatment of serious issues, the same cannot be said of the media's performance during Tuesday's press conference by premier Lennon in which Butler's resignation was announced.
If ever there was an opportunity for the local media to shake off its collective torpor here it was but what we were treated to instead was yet another belligerent performance by Lennon in front of a sycophantic audience, unwilling to concede anything, refusing to answer questions and looking every inch a man uncomfortable in the shoes he's been forced to fill following Bacon's passing.
If this is the man charged with leading the new Tasmania we're doomed. His public statements on the matter read as if the departing Guv had worded them himself. I mean who else but Dickie could have described his resignation as being to his 'everlasting credit' and 'courageous?' Pleeease. Even the vacuous state Liberal leader Rene Hidding, never celebrated for his coherence, uncharacteristically hit the nail on the head, decrying Butler's insulting ex gratia payment in terms of, 'here's a suitcase full of cash on your way out the door.'
Lennon's script refused to clarify why it was Butler had resigned, the premier unprepared to acknowledge any specific reason beyond the oft-alluded to 'controversy' and 'protecting the good name of Tasmania' and seemed to believe this was sufficient evidence for the decision taken.
If commentators such as Richard Flanagan required any further grist for their mill then the events of the last few days must have their collective cups overflowing. The Bacon legacy as such has been dealt twin blows this week with the resignation of Butler and also anti discrimination commissioner Jocelynne Scutt, both Bacon appointments.
All that remains is for Lennon to pull the pin on his enforced premiership to effectively wipe away the last vestiges of hubris that dog the state ALP. With any luck such a move would bring us all kicking and screaming into the 21st century but hey, we're all Tasmanians and there's no chance of that that happening anytime soon.
Warren Perso is an acerbic social and political commentator
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Thursday, August 12, 2004