Tasmania July to December 2022

Abstract

A divisive row over whether the Tasmanian government should spend $750 million to build a new stadium on Hobart's waterfront to secure a team in the AFL competition dominated state politics in the second half of 2022. The issue managed to overshadow ongoing concerns over the provision of hospital services, the housing crisis, rising cost of living pressures and the resignation from parliament of yet another minister. Yet, at the end of the period, the government enjoyed continued popularity.

The proposed Australian Rules football stadium at the languishing Macquarie Point site near the Hobart waterfront became a significant political issue, both within the Liberal Party and between the state's north and south. Specified as a precondition for Tasmania to join the AFL following decades-long obfuscation from the Melbourne-based body, the Premier backed its construction provided federal funding could be found. In so doing, previous plans to redevelop the Point including a reconciliation park were consigned to the waste bin.

While its cost, estimated at around $750 million, was compared with money that might instead be spent on much-needed health facilities and social housing, Premier Jeremy Rockliff and the state Liberals insisted that it would provide a major economic boost to construction and tourism, as it could be used for entertainment spectacles as well as other sports. However, federal Liberals, such as Senators Duniam, Askew and Chandler, opposed the idea as their electorates are statewide, and outside of Hobart the southern stadium was unpopular, as both current AFL stadiums – in Bellerive and York Park – could be upgraded at considerably less cost than Macquarie Point. The state Labor Party and the Greens opposed the stadium, while there was less than overwhelming support from local government.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not rule out funding for a stadium against the position of his state counterparts but signalled that it must include a full plan for the Macquarie Point site – for which he had already authorised an allocation of $50 million a decade prior when a minister in the Gillard government (ABC News, 15 December 2022).

In the meantime, there was more evidence that local Australian Rules football was in decline. Floods devasted many local grassroots clubs in October, when for example the Deloraine clubrooms and ground went completely underwater. Many facilities were “severely impacted” according to AFL Tasmania (Media Release, 18 October 2022). This was in contrast to the fortunes of basketball, where the Tasmanian team in the national league, the JackJumpers, reached the final, much to the benefit of local participation and membership.

In July, Police Minister Jacquie Petrusma resigned from state parliament becoming the fourth to exit the nine-minister cabinet since the state election in May 2021, including former Premier Peter Gutwein and ministers Jane Howlett and Sarah Courtney. Citing “personal and family reasons”, which appears to have become the usual refrain from those taking an early exit from parliament so soon after an election, Petrusma said that “Being a minister and a member of parliament is an incredible honour and privilege, however, there is no denying that the time required impacts your family” (ABC News, 25 July 2022). Petrusma, who also had held the Fire and Emergency Management, Prevention of Family Violence, and Parks portfolios, was first elected to state parliament in 2010 and appointed to the Hodgman cabinet following the Liberals' 2014 election victory, but lost the Human Services portfolio after the 2018 election. Petrusma had resigned from the frontbench entirely in 2019 due to health issues stemming from problems with a cochlear implant but had returned to the ministry following the 2021 election.

Premier Rockliff immediately announced Braddon MHA Felix Ellis' appointment to cabinet as Police Minister while Petrusma's other portfolios were distributed to ministers Jo Palmer and Roger Jaensch. Ellis was first elected to parliament in August 2020 on a recount under the Hare-Clark system following the resignation of former Braddon MHA Joan Rylah. He successfully defended the seat at the May 2021 election.

The recount in August to replace Petrusma in Franklin was a close contest between two Liberal candidates in the previous election, the former Huon Valley mayor Bec Enders and Dean Young, who came from a small business background in accounting and hospitality. The high-profile former mayor picked up 5,281 of Petrusma's redistributed votes but was pipped by the Hobart eastern shore-based Young with 5,808 votes (Tasmanian Electoral Commission, 15 August 2022).

Meanwhile, Labor upper house member Jo Siejka joined the exodus to become the second Labor Legislative Council member to resign and force a by-election within less than a year. Siejka, the member for Pembroke on Hobart's eastern shore, left parliament in August to move interstate to be with her husband. Her departure followed the shock resignation of Labor's Huon MLC Dr Bastian Seidel who resigned in December 2021 after criticising ALP infighting and saying his brief stint in politics had left him disillusioned (Mercury, 17 July 2022). Siejka won the seat from the Liberal Party in a 2017 by-election and successfully defended it in 2019.

The resignation had the potential to upset the sometimes-delicate voting balance in the 15-member upper house as both of the major parties had held four seats, with independents holding the other seven. However, Labor's Luke Edmunds successfully defended the seat at the by-election on 10 September which maintained the status quo. Edmunds, a former Clarence city councillor and journalist, won 63.26 per cent of the vote.

At the Liberal Party's state conference in August, Premier Rockliff announced two major new policies – an expansion of the government's Working Together program, which provides free early learning for three-year-olds prior to kindergarten, and his intention to establish regional strategic partnerships in conjunction with the Local Government Association of Tasmania, to create a state-wide industry network to expand services, skills and training in line with regional needs (Mercury, 20 August 2022). The language of the announcement was resonant of former Labor premier Jim Bacon's Tasmania Together and Local Government Partnership Agreement strategies in the late 1990s to build inclusiveness and set a twenty-year framework and direction for planning and land use.

Like his two Liberal predecessors Will Hodgman and Peter Gutwein, Rockliff has been building a reputation as a moderate since assuming the premiership, for example, by supporting a change in the date of Australia Day, by backing an Australian republic, and supporting the proposed referendum to give Indigenous peoples a Voice to Federal Parliament. He also successfully sponsored legislation through state parliament to restore the size of the House of Assembly to 35 seats, a position supported by Labor and the Greens since 2010.

However, not everyone bought in to the “moderate and inclusive” image. The left of Tasmanian politics pointed to the Liberals' continued pursuit under his premiership of anti-protest legislation despite earlier High Court rulings that previous attempts were unconstitutional. Further signs of a harder right undertone included legislation for harsher penalties for public nuisance offences such as blocking vehicles or pedestrians in the street. There were also simmering concerns over the abuse of community grants to garner support for Liberal candidates during elections, a decision to override independent recommendations for appointments to tribunals, and hard-line budgetary constraints on public sector pay rises (Togatus, August 2022).

There were varying reactions to the state government's new Aboriginal Advisory group to progress Truth-telling and Treaty, with Nala Mansell of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre calling into question the representativeness of the body. Her comments followed the TAC's decision to boycott the election process. The six-person group consisted of Rodney Dillon, Dave mangenner Gough, Nick Cameron, Gypsy Draven, Maxine Roughly and Theresa Sainty from different areas of the state (National Indigenous Times, 2 December 2022).

While Premier Rockliff promised to campaign for an Indigenous Voice to parliament in the forthcoming federal referendum, contrary to the federal National Party and likely federal Liberal Party position (Australian, 8 July 2022), prominent Palawa elder and chair of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council Michael Mansell said in November that he opposed the proposed federal referendum on the Voice (Tasmanian Times, 29 November 2022).

In a subsequent interview published by Sydney Criminal Lawyers on 21 December, Mansell said that the Voice would not have the positive effect for his people that was being conveyed. Instead, he said that an allocation of Senate seats for Aboriginal people would produce genuine change. In the interview, Mansell said the Voice was “the weakest proposal for the advancement of Aboriginal people that anyone could come up with. In addition to that, Albanese has said that if there is a referendum held during this term of office, he will not also sign off on a treaty. This means we've got a choice to have a treaty during this term of office or the Voice. The difference between the two options is a Voice delivers nothing but advice or comment any time that the parliament makes a law that might affect Aboriginal people.” Mansell's views, however, were not shared by all Palawa leaders. Elder Rodney Dillon, a member of the federal working group, said in September that he believed Australians were ready to debate the issue in a mature way (Mercury, 21 September 2022).

Tasmania's next state election will be for 35 members after legislation to increase the size of the House of Assembly passed both houses in November. This means that, under Tasmania's Hare-Clark proportional voting system, each of the state's five electorates will return seven members at the next election, due by June 2025.

The size of both houses of parliament was reduced in 1998 under the Rundle Liberal government – the House of Assembly from 35 to 25 and the Legislative Council from 19 to 15 – after an agreement between Labor and the Liberals. For the lower house using the Hare-Clark multi-member electorate voting system, this increased the quota required for each successful candidate to win a seat from 12.5 per cent to 16.6 per cent, making it more difficult for minor parties and independents to win seats and thus lessening the prospect of hung parliaments, although arguably this has not proven to be the case.

Since 2010, all three parties represented in the Tasmanian parliament have agreed in principle that the numbers should be restored due to the heavy and growing workload on MPs, a reduced talent pool from which to draw ministers, and difficulties filling casual vacancies through recounts after members resign or die in office. But while they agreed in principle that numbers should be restored, no premier had committed to legislating the change due to concerns of a voter backlash. That changed in May 2022 when newly installed Premier Rockliff made a surprise announcement, pledging to table a bill to restore the House to 35 members before the end of the year. The bill was supported unanimously in the House of Assembly in early November and passed the upper house on 24 November (ABC News, 24 November 2022).

Attorney-General Elise Archer said she removed the names of four applicants from the list of recommendations for appointment to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal because she doubted their ability to uphold the TASCAT Code of Conduct. The TASCAT was created in 2021 to bring together nine different tribunals aimed at resolving legal proceedings in mental health, guardianship, workers compensation, asbestos compensation, motor accidents, health practitioners, anti-discrimination, resources and planning, and forestry. It consisted of 90 members.

Archer said the decision to remove the four from the list was due to the applicants holding “other positions that could affect the perception of their impartiality.” One such person removed from the list was former Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Robin Banks, who had been previously appointed to other statutory officer positions by both Labor and Liberal governments. Banks was also a member of the Commonwealth Group of Experts on reform of sexual offences, hate crimes and related laws, the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law, and the Australian Discrimination Law Experts Group. Archer's action was raised in parliament by her shadow, Ella Haddad (media release, 24 November 2022).

Remarkably, the replacement of highly popular former Premier Gutwein with his successor Rockliff in April and yet another ministerial resignation from parliament in July appeared to do little to dent the dominance of the Liberal Party. An opinion survey conducted by Tasmanian pollsters EMRS in November found support for the Liberal Party at 42 per cent, a one per cent increase from the previous poll in August and about the same level as prior to Gutwein's resignation.

Support for the Labor Party was down by two points to 29 per cent compared to 31 per cent in August. Support for the Greens rose marginally to 14 per cent, a rise of 1 point since the August poll. Also remarkable was that, of the remaining decided voters, 16 per cent stated that they would vote for another option to the three major parties, broadly in line with the 15 per cent recorded in the previous poll and likely reflecting support for Clark independent Kristie Johnston. Rockliff remained firmly the preferred premier with 46 per cent support ahead of Labor leader Rebecca White at 34 per cent.

The CommSec State of the States report released in October noted that after slipping to third position in its July report, Tasmania had returned to top position in the rankings of the best performing state and territory economies when comparing eight indicators against each state and territory's decade average. The eight indicators were: economic growth; retail spending; equipment investment; unemployment; construction work done; population growth; housing finance; and dwelling commencements.

However, on the most general indicator, economic growth, in the year to June 2022 Tasmania was only fourth (up 28.6 per cent), after Western Australia (35.4 per cent above its ‘normal’ or decade-average level of output), while the Northern Territory's output was 33.9 per cent above its ‘normal’ level of output; Queensland was in third position (up 30.9 per cent). Nevertheless, Tasmania led the overall rankings especially due to improvements in retail spending and housing finance. According to CommSec Chief Economist Craig James, Tasmania's quick return to the top of the economic leader board was due to consistently high rankings across the eight economic indicators (CommBank media release, 24 October 2022).

Meanwhile, the second half of the year also saw a significant improvement in the Tasmanian budgetary position. The Tasmanian Department of Treasury and Finance Revised Estimates Report in December noted the general government sector net operating balance had improved by $497.6 million, which reflected a range of revenue and expenditure changes.

Hobart's dramatic rise in real estate prices began to cool. Hobart dwelling prices fell five per cent in the last quarter of 2022, and 1.9 per cent in December alone, according to property analysts CoreLogic. The 6.9 per cent drop in value over the year was the third greatest of any Australian capital city, behind only Sydney at −12.1 per cent and Melbourne at −8.1 per cent. Median Hobart prices were about $673,000 during the last quarter of 2022, still well above the pre-pandemic median price of $489,000 of February 2020. Nationwide, property values dropped 5.3 per cent in 2022, the first fall since 2018, whereas in regional Tasmania property prices continued to rise during the year by about 8.5 per cent in the northeast and by about seven per cent in the northwest, while Launceston fell 2.8 per cent over the year (ABC News, 3 January 2023). However, revised figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the June 2022 quarter reported Tasmania's population was 571,517 persons, eight years ahead of the 2030 population target of 570,000 (Department of State Growth, 10 November 2022).

Consultation on the Tasmanian housing strategy discussion paper was completed in October. However, strategy development, submission to government, release and implementation was due to be concluded by August 2023. The recently formed housing reference group consisting of Housing Minister Guy Barnett and organisations with an interest in the area, including the Tasmanian Council of Social Services, Shelter Tasmania, the Real Estate Institute and the Master Builders' Association, met for the second time in September, and for the third time on 13 December – the first time under the new structure of Homes Tasmania. The government's commitment to deliver 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2032 was a central part of the strategy (Homes Tasmania, December 2022). The new arrangements followed criticism from Labor's Ella Haddad that in the worsening housing crisis wait time for public housing in Tasmania had blown out to two years (Mercury, 28 August 2022).

In November, thousands of public sector workers, including teachers, nurses, health staff, firefighters and civil servants, turned out in “stop work” rallies across the state to protest low wages and poor working conditions. The union gatherings coincided with debates within the House of Assembly on the recent public sector pay offer of 3.5 per cent in the first year and three per cent in the following two years. While Labor's shadow treasurer Shane Broad said that any pay offer must more closely reflect inflation – then running at more than eight per cent per year – Treasurer Ferguson said that matching inflation would only lead to a wage-price spiral resulting in even higher inflation. However, the rank-and-file and their leaders pointed to deteriorating working conditions including understaffing as equally important to their concerns. Premier Rockliff, however, kept the focus on wages and the third offer, which he said was final (ABC News, 9 November 2022).

The draft Tasmanian Salmon Industry Plan 2023 was released for public consultation on 23 November, with community briefing sessions planned around the state. According to Primary Industries Minister Jo Palmer, web-based feedback was encouraged before finalisation (media release, 23 November 2022). In an initial response to the draft, community groups Neighbours of Fish Farms, the Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection, and the Killora Community Association said that it marked “a complete capitulation by the Rockliff government to the foreign-owned industry giving it what it wants, where it wants … the community campaign to rid Tasmanian waters of polluting salmon feedlots will step up over the next few months.” At a media conference in Hobart on 14 December, several environment and community groups said they regarded the consultation process as a sham and that they would have no more to do with it. The three key demands of the groups were to remove salmon farms from shallow water leases, to move salmon farming onshore, and for transparent governance (Tasmanian Times, 14 December 2022).

Meanwhile, the salmon industry itself appeared remarkably quiet on the issue, as well as in relation to existing farms. One important news item was that leases had been affected by Vibrio anguillarum, a bacterium that can produce a “high mortality rate” in salmon. Tassal and Huon Aquaculture did not respond to media requests for details on how many salmon died in the outbreak earlier in the year, but it was revealed that more than a tonne of antibiotics was used in its containment (Guardian, 14 November 2022).

In August, Premier Rockliff and Youth Minister Roger Jaensch announced the closure of the troubled Ashley Youth Detention Centre near Deloraine in the state's north by the end of 2024. Similar to an earlier declaration by then Premier Gutwein in 2021, the announcement foreshadowed “a new model of care” involving “contemporary therapeutic facilities” as part of reform of the entire youth justice system (media release, 28 August 2022). Ashley had been at the centre of investigations of child sexual abuse in Tasmanian institutions by a commission of inquiry set up during the year. One of the major changes announced was an increase in the minimum age of detention from 10 to 14, in line with recent campaigns by organisations such as Amnesty International, which had pointed out that the existing age for criminal responsibility was unusually low by world standards. The move was also consistent with changes proposed in other states. Such were the abuses of children uncovered by the inquiry, University of Tasmania criminologist Rob White said that the end of Ashley “could not come soon enough” and that “it should be razed to the ground” (ABC News, 19 August 2022).

Leigh Carmichael, creative director of the successful and controversial Hobart winter festival Dark Mofo, announced his resignation to follow the 2023 program (ABC News, 22 September 2022). Carmichael had led the festival for a decade, helping reverse the traditional mid-year tourism slump by embracing the cold, the dark and the primitive, including events such as the dawn winter solstice nude swim. Other projects such as the Hanging Gardens development in central Hobart and “Transformer”, a permanent artwork by Doug Aitken at Ida Bay in the far south, were to remain under his direction at DarkLab, the creative agency owned by Mona's David Walsh.

Two Tasmanians were appointed to the seven-person National Cultural Policy Advisory Group to work with expert panels developing the new national cultural policy, ‘Revive’. One was Sinsa Mansell, the Trawoolaway woman from larapuna in the state's north and co-founder and creative producer with pakana kanaplila, the traditional and contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal dance troupe. The other was Kitty Taylor, visual artist and co-founder of RANT Arts, the peak organisation administering the Regional Arts Fund in Tasmania. Devonport-based, she was especially noted for socially engaged practice and capacity building within communities (Federal Office for the Arts, 26 August 2022).

Elections for Tasmania's 29 councils in October were notable as much for what candidates were opposed to as what they stood for, particularly in the case of Hobart City Council. Local government elections are held by postal ballot every four years to elect between seven and twelve councillors for each municipality. This year, for the first time, voting for residents and ratepayers was compulsory. Voting commenced on 3 October and closed on 25 October; counting was finalised on 1 November with the Tasmanian Electoral Office reporting a voter turnout of 84.79 per cent, significantly higher than in previous elections (TEC media release, 1 November 2022).

While most candidates took advantage of the TEC's invitation to have a brief statement about their experience, policies and positions distributed with the ballot papers, in the media the campaigns largely were fought over support or opposition to local ‘hot’ issues. In Hobart those issues included a plebiscite on the University of Tasmania's plan to move most of its campus from the suburb of Sandy Bay to the Hobart CBD, the proposal for a cable car to the summit of kunanyi/Mount Wellington, the loss of rental housing to short stay holiday accommodation, and increasing traffic problems. Elsewhere the focus was on development issues like fish farming, regional economic development and tourism. The elections threw up several surprises, from mayors and longstanding councillors losing their positions, to newcomers taking on leadership roles as well as success for cross-party alliances for mayor-deputy tickets (Mercury, 1 November 2022).

In November, the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) rejected an appeal against a decision by the Hobart City Council in July to refuse the Mt Wellington Cableway Company's controversial plan for a cable car from South Hobart to the kunanyi/Mt Wellington pinnacle. The company decided against a Supreme Court challenge to the TASCAT decision.

The decision was met with relief by the Residents Opposed to the Cable Car group who said they hoped the rejection would send a clear message to the company and its shareholders to walk away from the project, warning that opponents would be ready if it decided to “go back to the drawing board” and submit a new application (Mercury, 3 November 2022). MWCC can wait two years to submit the proposal to Hobart City Council again and attempt to address the grounds for its defeat in the TASCAT. However, in a letter to the company in December, Premier Rockliff kept the door open saying the government continued to support the concept of a cable car and encouraged the company to refine the project design and resubmit a new development application. The government would not rule out next time bypassing council and using the state's major project approval process (ABC News, 9 December 2022).

In conjunction with the election of councillors, in October the Hobart City Council undertook a poll of electors on the question of the relocation of the university campus from Sandy Bay to the city centre. The poll was instigated by the Save UTas Campus group following a large public meeting on the issue and the signatures of more than the minimum 1,000 or five per cent of electors. However, despite the University undertaking a social media, television and radio advertising campaign plus four rounds of community engagement promoting the move, the result was overwhelmingly against – by almost three to one. Of the 30,428 votes cast, support for the move was only 25.62 per cent, with 74.38 per cent opposed (Mercury, 1 November 2022). Further, elected councillors were clearly opposed to the move. They included Marti Zucco, Louise Elliot, Louise Bloomfield and John Kelly.

Nonetheless, the result was questioned as meaningless given that Greater Hobart is served by six councils, let alone several others in southern Tasmania. The electors of Clarence, Glenorchy and Kingborough, for example, were not involved despite an arguably greater need for better access to the Hobart campus. While 41 per cent of Hobart resident Year 12 graduates enrolled at the University in 2021, only 27 per cent of Clarence's and 20 per cent of Glenorchy's did so (Tasmanian Times, 12 December 2022).