Premier talks up Labor
DAVID KILLICK
February 01, 2010 08:18am
PREMIER David Bartlett has issued a rallying cry to his troops as the state election looms.
At North Hobart Football Club yesterday, Mr Bartlett told a gathering of election hopefuls and party faithful Labor had made mistakes in office and would probably make more but was better than the alternatives.
In a speech bookended by standing ovations, Mr Bartlett drew on his own humble beginnings, said he wanted to lead Labor to victory in the election and pledged to fight for the state’s battlers.
“Labor offers a clear choice between a government that has made mistakes but is big enough and strong enough to learn from them and is getting on with the job, and an opposition that thinks it can coast into office on vague, unfunded campaign promises and a pocketful of hollow pledges,” he said.
“I cannot promise that things will always work out or mistakes will not be made in the future, but I can promise you that I will always listen.”
The Premier dubbed Liberal leader Will Hodgman a whinger with no plan for the state and savaged his “small target” campaign strategy.
“Labor has an agenda to move forwards by working together with Tasmanians,” Mr Bartlett said.
“If our opponents have a plan at all, if they have a plan at all, they refuse to show it.
“Without a positive program, Will Hodgman and the Liberals have perfected the schoolyard art of whingeing and finger-pointing.”
Deputy Premier Lara Giddings said Labor was the only party that could deliver responsible economic management to Tasmania.
“We are the one government that has consistently had credit rating upgrades unlike previous Liberal governments,” Ms Giddings said.
“Credit rating upgrades mean you are financially responsible and you are delivering for this state a budget that will not go back into debt.
“This government will not take this state back into debt, particularly after we have done the hard yards and paid back the $1.6 billion debt the Liberals left this state in.”
But Mr Hodgman yesterday launched a “spendometer” which he said showed the Government was spending “like a drunken sailor” in order to be re-elected.
“Since the last opinion poll which showed we can win government in this state, David Bartlett has been on a spending spree he is spending over $4 million a day,” he said.
“Tasmanians won’t be fooled that this is just a government going about its business, this is David Bartlett going about the business of trying to hang on to government.
“What we are seeing is a man who is desperate, who will say and spend anything he has to to hang on to power.”
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But Labor believes it’s working:
SUE NEALES
February 03, 2010 06:59am
LABOR Party internal polls show the Bartlett Govt remains in reach of retaining majority power at the state election next month.
Support for the Government has surged back in the past two months, with female voters in particular believing it has significantly “lifted its game”.
Premier David Bartlett is credited by swinging voters with reviving Labor’s fortunes, and party-commissioned focus groups praise the Premier for his new “listening” and “hearing” approach.
The research data, leaked yesterday to the Mercury, reveals that voters have been impressed with Mr Bartlett’s readiness to admit mistakes and to backflip on unpopular earlier decisions, such as hefty water and sewerage charges and increased land tax bills.
Labor insiders are now hopeful that instead of a crushing defeat or a three-way muddle resulting from the election, they may only lose just one or two of their 14 Lower House seats.
Such a result would keep Labor in power without a challenge, unless the Liberals and Greens form a formal coalition.
But the North-West Coast electorate of Braddon, where Labor is struggling to keep its three seats, is now more than ever the key to Labor’s chances of hanging on to power.
The boost to Labor’s chances comes after the Government significantly changed its re-election strategy following November’s horror political opinion poll.
That EMRS poll predicted for the first time that the Liberal Opposition could win a majority of the 25 seats in the Lower House and form the next government.
It also showed that Liberal leader Will Hodgman was massively more popular with voters as preferred premier, and that Labor was heading for an electoral backlash.
Since the November shock, Mr Bartlett has embarked on a new “listening and hearing” tour of Tasmania, has fought internally to be allowed to set his own policy decisions and priorities, and allocated more than $400 million of improved finances to a “back-to-basics” spending program.
The Premier, who recently described his internal fight for leadership decision-making as a “let Bartlett be Bartlett” push, has particularly focused on appointing and funding new positions for teachers, park rangers, police and firefighters.
A senior Labor figure said the results showed the election would be a close-run and tightly fought contest.
“It is still going to be close but this shows we are on our way back,” said the Labor source, who refused to be publicly identified.
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