Tasmanian leaders debate: Rebecca White kicks stadium goal but Jeremy Rockliff scores a point

Labor Leader Rebecca White, moderator Alex Johnston and Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff during the first Tasmanian leaders’ debate. Picture: Chris Kidd

The first Tasmanian election leaders’ debate brought to mind a drunken altercation once observed on the hill at the end of a long day’s Test cricket.

Two sunburnt blokes who had miraculously managed to become inebriated on mid-strength threw punches in slow motion, barely able to stand much less successful make contact.

It was more mime than stoush and no-one got hurt.

Neither Jeremy Rockliff nor Rebecca White over did it on the fine wine at the Henry Jones Art Hotel, on Hobart’s waterfront.

However, both seemed to lack the energy or focus for a bruising encounter.

There was the almost customary anti-logging protest, but this too was more friendly than feral; the protesters agreeing to leave once they’d made their point.

The Labor leader seemed a little livelier than the Liberal incumbent. White also shed a bit more policy light.

Labor, she said, would not build a new Hobart stadium, but might do so once the new AFL team proved successful and if it could be demonstrated two existing stadia were insufficient.

It gave her the best line: “We have a bigger problem with people not fitting into our hospitals than we do with them not fitting into our stadiums.”

The counter is that the stadium would create jobs and visitation, helping to fund public services, but the line neatly encapsulated the case against the project.

However, on a day when an opinion poll showed Labor at just 23 per cent to the Liberals’ 37, Rockliff was able to claim his party was “within striking distance of achieving majority government”.

It’s an overly optimistic analysis but underscores that if there is a skerrick of momentum in this slow-mo battle, it is not with Labor.