Charles Wooley: Love him or loathe him, Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz is great for ratings

When it comes to Tasmania, mainland journalists show little interest in our state. But there is one thing they ask me about – they all know Senator Eric Abetz, writes CHARLES WOOLEY.

Much talked about Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz was the subject of a segment on a recent episode of ABC's Hard Quiz. Picture: AAP IMAGE/MICK TSIKAS.

I ADMIT to having a fascination with Senator Eric Abetz. But it’s not an unhealthy fascination. It’s good for business. Whenever I write about him, there is strong reaction. Whether or not they agree, readers are always interested. We don’t have current affairs television in Tasmania since the ABC deserted this island decades ago, but if we did Eric would be invited to appear on a regular basis because of the passions he provokes. Simply, he would be good for ratings.

When viewers throw their slippers at the screen, television programmers rejoice. As the letters to the editor section of this newspaper attests, Eric generates robust reaction.

So, it’s fair to assume, if we had a current affairs television program in the River City, Eric would always achieve the highest number of slippers thrown.

When it comes to Tasmania, mainland journalists have little knowledge and even less interest in our state (beyond pinot noir and soft cheeses). But there is one thing they ask me about. They can scarcely name our Premier, nor any of our members of the House of Representatives, nor 11 out of 12 of our Senators. But they all know Senator Eric Abetz.

Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz was the subject of a segment on the ABC's Hard Quiz.

In the past, I’ve interviewed Eric on radio a few times and followed his political career but how little I really knew struck home when I watched last week’s Hard Quiz on the ABC.

A contestant, Peter, chose as his special subject, Senator Eric Abetz. There was much hilarity. Eric and the ABC are oil and water as the show’s host Tom Gleeson made quite clear.

“Peter, are you a massive fan of his politics?’

“No.” Peter replied.

“Don’t suck up to the ABC audience,” Gleeson only half joked.

The big trick on Hard Quiz is to pick a topic so obscure that no other contestant can get in first and steal a point by answering a question on your subject.

Gleeson was on to it. “OK, Peter, you thought Eric Abetz, because no one’s going to steal that topic because he’s so boring no one would know anything about him?”

During the quiz I learnt there was so much more to know about our Eric. I scored only a miserable 7 out of 11. I trust you do worse. The answers are at the bottom of the page. No cheating.

Q1) At the age of three, after his father obtained work on the hydro scheme, Eric Abetz emigrated from Germany to what Australian city?

Q2) Abetz was the Minister for Employment at the establishment of which Royal Commission?

Q3) When arrested over war crimes in 1945, Eric’s great-uncle Otto Abetz said he believed in the survival and impending return of which high-ranking Nazi?

Q4) Hard Quiz host Gleeson played a clip of Senator Abetz in Senate estimates saying: “And that is the issue of a bias, and favouring one point of view over another”. He was referring to bias at which organisation?

Q5) In May 2019, Abetz presented Scott Morrison with a portrait of who made of what?

Q6) Abetz gained an interest in politics while studying law at the University of Tasmania, where he joined the Liberal Party because of outrage over what compulsory requirement?

Q7) Despite being available free online, in 2018, Abetz defended his purchase of 200 copies of a book with what title?

Q8) Invited by the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex to send a message to another planet in 2009, Abetz outlined his dream to be free of what?

Q9) In 2017, Abetz raised concerns over the pride flag being flown in the lobby of which government building?

Q10) Abetz asked 85 Commonwealth departments and agencies to, and I quote, “Provide the messages, if any, sent to staff” on which four occasions?

Q11) In 1999, Abetz was one of only a handful of parliamentarians who attended a screening held to review the classification of which film?

A footnote here; Eric Abetz’s political critics often snidely refer to ‘Uncle Otto’. The Otto in question (3) was as indicated on Hard Quiz, not an uncle but a great-uncle. Otto Abetz was a Nazi SS officer and Hitler’s ambassador to occupied France. He was convicted of war crimes and died in 1958, the year of Eric’s birth. In fact, Eric never knew him.

It is always unfair to blame the sins of the fathers on the children and more so to go back even further generations in search of skeletons in the closet. Certainly, with our dark history Tasmanians might always be better focused getting it right in the present.

Speaking of getting it right, how did you go?

Answers; Q1. Hobart. Q2. Royal Commission into Trade Unions. Q3. Adolf Hitler. Q4. The ABC. Q5. Scott Morrison’s portrait carved into timber. (By Tasmanian wood-turner Bob Brinkman). Q6. Compulsory membership of the student union. Q7. The Forgotten People by R.G. Menzies. Q8. Labor debt. Q9. The Department of Finance. Q10. Christmas, New Year, Easter and Ramadan. Q11. A remake of Lolita starring Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith.