‘Give me budget input’ says Tasmania’s potential king-maker Kristie Johnston

Front-running independent candidate in the Tasmanian election, Kristie Johnston, would use any kingmaker role to demand direct input into state budgets.

Glenorchy mayor Kristie Johnston. Picture: Peter Mathew

Front-running independent candidate in the Tasmanian election, Kristie Johnston, would use any kingmaker role to demand direct input into state budgets and push a compromise on Hobart’s controversial cable car.

Ms Johnston, a popular mayor of Glenorchy, said that, if elected to a hung parliament, she would be willing to offer either major party confidence and supply.

In return, she would expect direct input into budget preparations to further her agenda for the Hobart-based electorate of Clark, which includes a $200m-plus light rail proposal.

“I want to be properly briefed on supply issues and to have the opportunity to put that community voice, the views of the community, into that budget process,” Ms Johnston said.

“It would have to be a negotiation with which ever party formed government in terms of a process for developing their budget. What’s critical is that I get the information and the briefings and I have the chance to scrutinise that and to make submissions.”

The 40-year-old lawyer is considered a fair chance of winning a seat in Clark, which takes in her municipal powerbase.

The battle for Clark is one of the most volatile and difficult to predict of the May 1 election.

Other high-profile Clark candidates include Liberal-turned-independent Sue Hickey and Labor-turned-independent-turned-Liberal Madeleine Ogilvie, as well as full tickets of major party candidates. (Each of the five electorates returns five MPs).

The governing Liberals fell into minority government just before the election was called on March 26, after Ms Hickey quit the party, but regained a notional one-seat majority days later by recruiting Ms Ogilvie.

Ms Johnston, who in 2018 won 86.36 per cent of the vote to secure her second term as Glenorchy mayor, knocked back approaches from Labor and the Liberals to run in Clark for them at this election.

She said she was refusing to accept donations — even one offered by her father — meaning she would need to spend tens of thousands of dollars of her savings to fund her campaign.

A former ALP member, who quit over Labor’s treatment of asylum seekers, Ms Johnston said the cost was worth it to retain her independence.

She saw herself as a champion of social justice but also as pro-development, pointing to $9bn in investment proposed for Glenorchy, which takes in Hobart’s less wealthy and sometimes maligned northern suburbs.

However, she wanted to see a compromise on one of the most divisive projects facing Clark: the $50m cable car proposed for Kunanyi/Mt Wellington.

Her alternative plan would re-route the cableway to the mountain’s northern side, avoiding the Organ Pipes rock formation, and have its base in Glenorchy.

“I want to find a way to compromise; to still get that accessibility and tourism opportunity, (while) protecting the iconic organ pipes,” she said. “It’s time all parties came to the table and had a genuine discussion.”

Credited with cleaning up a dysfunctional and cash-strapped council, which was sacked by the state government in 2017, Ms Johnston is seen as a tough operator and a relative cleanskin.