Tas leaders get personal in campaign’s last days

Tasmania’s political leaders made their state election campaign ‘launches’ personal, with Labor’s Rebecca White questioning how Peter Gutwein ‘sleeps at night’.

Premier Peter Gutwein has spoken of the enormity of the decisions he had to make at the height of the Covid pandemic response. Picture: Rob Burnett

Tasmania’s political leaders made their state election campaign “launches” personal, with Labor’s Rebecca White questioning how Peter Gutwein “sleeps at night” and the Premier revealing a personal toll from pandemic leadership.

Ms White placed health policy at the heart of Labor’s pitch for the May 1 poll, arguing only it was willing to take bold measures to fix the state’s “health crisis”.

Mr Gutwein focused on his track record in “keeping Tasmanians safe” from COVID-19, and quickly rebuilding the state’s economy.

However, with less than two weeks to polling day, both leaders sought to land personal blows on their opponents, with little new policy announced.

Ms White claimed there was “something about Peter Gutwein you just can’t trust”, that he had a “secret plan” to privatise Hydro Tasmania and was not “on your side”.

“The question I have for Peter Gutwein is: how does he sleep at night, knowing that people are living in pain for years and in some cases dying because they can’t access the health care they need?” Ms White told party faithful at Hobart’s Grand Chancellor Hotel.

“How does Peter Gutwein sleep at night knowing that people are dying waiting for an ambulance? How does Peter Gutwein sleep at night knowing that people are dying from cancer because they haven’t been able to see a specialist in time?

“How does Peter Gutwein sleep at night knowing that he has the power and the money to do something about the health crisis but he has made a deliberate and calculated choice not to?”

Under a big “Solving the health crisis” banner, Ms White trumpeted the expertise of her “expert” health spokesman, Bastian Seidel, a GP, pledging an extra 144 paramedics and that all suspected cancer patients would see a specialist within two weeks.

Meanwhile, at a confectionery wholesaler just outside of Hobart, Mr Gutwein gave a speech focused heavily on his success suppressing coronavirus and returning jobs lost at the height of the crisis.

“We laid out a clear plan that firstly kept people safe and then secondly began the rebuilding of our economy,” Mr Gutwein said.

“By the middle of last year, Tasmania was one of the safest places in the country. However, Treasury were forecasting an economy in recession and an unemployment rate peaking at 12.25 per cent.

“We used our strong balance sheet to roll out record levels of support, and that plan on any measure has worked. Tasmania is now one of the safest places on the planet, our economy is growing again and jobs have returned to pre-pandemic levels.”

Apparently keen to soften his image, Mr Gutwein, who took over the premiership just weeks before COVID struck last year, revealed he repeatedly broke down in tears when having to shut ­borders and businesses and restrict funerals.

“I’m not a person who wears their emotions on their sleeve, I’m not a person who can cry on demand, but the enormity of those decisions was not lost on me,” Mr Gutwein said.

“Believe me, the tears I shed in parliament last year were not the only tears that I shed. But those decisions, no matter how hard, were necessary to keep us safe.”

Dressed informally in a sleeveless “Tassie tuxedo” — a puffer jacket — Mr Gutwein said only the Liberals could provide “strong, stable, majority government”.

Emphatically rejecting claims he would privatise Hydro, Mr Gutwein said Ms White presided over a hopelessly divided Labor Party, demonstrating that she could not govern.

“So I say to Tasmanians, when you decide who you’ll be voting for, please consider the following question: who do you want sitting in the Premier’s chair when the next big challenge comes?