Throughout this election campaign the ALP, and the Premier David Bartlett in particular, have harped on about the Greens being the wolves in sheep’s clothing. He would certainly have been right a few years when the fundamentalist old trots and eco-warriors ran the Greens. But Mckim and his fellow Greens like Cassy O’Connor are desperate to share the spoils of office just as their German counterparts do. That’s why the Greens in Tasmania are now centre left.
The real wolves hiding in the sheep’s cuddly fleece are the Liberal Party. It is controlled in Tasmania by nasties led by Senator Eric Abetz. Abetz represents a swag of Christian Right moralists like the almost certain to be elected on Saturday Michael Ferguson and Jacqui Petrusma.
While the uninspring Liberal Leader Will Hodgman is a centrist, he will feel the Abetz and co heat early on. Watch for a Liberal government that attacks workers’ rights – one of Abetz’s obsessions – undermines same sex partnership laws, introduces mandatory jail terms and injects the secular education system with Howard like ‘values’.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.