Ghost in machine says Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein’s ride over

“Thanks, your trip has ended,” interjected the automated voice of the e-scooter, rudely interrupting Premier Peter Gutwein’s last pitch to Tasmania’s voting public.

Artificial intelligence it may have been, but the utterings of the contraption, which the Liberal leader had earlier ridden in his last media stunt of the campaign, may yet be prophetic.

The Premier, who has gambled his political future on an early election, had just finished explaining why he would not govern if he fell short of a majority on Saturday.

That now appears a roughly even bet.

Some Liberals began the five-week campaign believing the party was a chance at picking up a seat or two in the northern electorates. In the campaign’s dying days, these hopes had faded, replaced with fears of losing a seat in southern Clark. This could ironically be at the hands of Sue Hickey, the former Liberal who became an independent after Gutwein ejected her.

Hickey was Gutwein’s excuse for the premature poll, her exit from the Liberals leaving the government in minority. It was a poor excuse, given that despite being jilted for her rebellious conduct, Hickey promised supply and confidence to her former colleagues, as had independent (and now Liberal) Madeleine Ogilvie.

Gutwein’s real motivation for the early poll was to exploit his sky-high personal approval ratings, on the back of his largely successful pandemic management.

In the first two weeks of the campaign, the strategy appeared to have paid off in spades. Labor imploded. The first blow for the ALP was news, broken by The Australian, that the party’s national executive was poised to overrule state Left powerbrokers and install the Right’s Dean Winter as a candidate in Franklin.

Labor Leader Rebecca White, with partner Rodney Dann and daughter Mia, 4, vote at the Sorell Memorial Hall. Picture: Chris Kidd

Then came Ben McGregor, Labor state president, admitting he had sent “vulgar” text messages to a woman. Effectively left with no choice by leader Rebecca White, McGregor withdrew as candidate for Clark, but remains president, while threatening to sue White for defamation.

Next up, The Australian exposed another Labor candidate for Clark, Sam Mitchell, as having made offensive social media posts, for which he apologised, but remained on the party ticket.

At this point, Labor and White were on the ropes. White, however — despite being heavily pregnant and in open conflict with some of her party’s dominant factional warlords — fought on, successfully shifting the focus to the Liberals’ Achilles heel: health.

With public hospitals seemingly in permanent crisis, surgical waiting lists at record length, and shortages of GPs and specialists, this was a smart move.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein arrives with wife Amanda to vote at East Launceston Primary School in Launceston. Tasmanian state election 2021. Picture: Rob Burnett

White was aided by a health spokesman in Bastian Seidel, a former GP who at least sounds like he knows what’s he’s talking about. Liberal Health Minister Sarah Courtney — like all her colleagues — appeared to be silenced by party HQ, leaving Gutwein to promise things would be better, an assurance that after seven years of government rang a little hollow.

The scandals shifted to the Liberals. Star Braddon candidate and former minister Adam Brooks denied any knowledge of how his photograph came to be on dating app profiles for “Gav” and “trb44eng”. Brooks also declined to respond to claims he dated one woman who all the while believed his name was Terry.

Little wonder voters appear to be flirting with independents.

After a hell of a ride, Tasmanians will simply be relieved that, as the scooter says, the “trip has ended”.