Anthony Albanese promised Tasmanians ahead of the 2022 election that he would always have their backs and ensure “no one was left behind”.
In his Tasmanian election launch speech, weeks out from polling day, the Prime Minister mocked Scott Morrison for “always going missing when the going gets tough”.
For many Tasmanians whose livelihoods and families rely on well-paid salmon industry jobs, they feel Albanese has gone missing in action.
Tasmanian voters have long memories. They remember when state ALP leaders, MPs, and even the CFMEU, sided with John Howard against Mark Latham’s forestry policy during Labor’s disastrous 2004 campaign. Former Tasmanian premier Paul Lennon, who told Latham where to go, is right to warn Albanese about contagion risks for Labor.
Bill Shorten’s fence-sitting on Adani ahead of the 2019 election, combined with Bob Brown’s unwelcome convoy to central Queensland, created a perception that Labor was anti-jobs and anti-regions. Lennon and AWU boss Paul Farrow are spot on in saying that Labor must be definitive in supporting workers ahead of inner-city, green-tinged voters.
Weaponising a “fish” that no voter has heard of, the Bob Brown Foundation, Australia Institute and Environmental Defenders Office bluffed Tanya Plibersek into putting a ticking time bomb under Tasmania’s salmon industry. It was not the first or last time that Plibersek has used the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to hide behind legal processes. In restoring EDO funding, the Albanese government has effectively aided and abetted costly green lawfare by activists to delay or block job-creating projects.
Albanese and Plibersek, left-faction rivals who are eligible to cash in on the now defunct gold-plated MPs superannuation scheme, represent inner-Sydney constituencies bearing zero resemblance to working-class voters in the Tasmanian seats of Braddon, Lyons and Bass.
As Peter Dutton heads to Lyons at the weekend, Albanese and Plibersek seem content to leave salmon workers enduring a second Christmas not knowing whether their jobs are safe. All Australians, and particularly Tasmanians, want to preserve the environment and wildlife. The industry is willing to discuss conditions, ensuring they continue operating sustainably.
Albanese made big promises before the 2022 election: He would always turn up when it gets tough, power bills would be cheaper by $275 and transparency and integrity would be returned to politics.
“I can promise you if I get something wrong – I’ll own up to it. I won’t run and hide from responsibility. I won’t go missing when the going gets tough. I think leadership is about facing up to problems and looking for solutions,” he said in late 2021.
As Dutton “turns up” in Tassie, Albanese and Plibersek must park to one side any animosity between them and accelerate workable, long-term solutions for all stakeholders.
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