WOOLEY: State is on the march towards a zombie election

If you’re upset about the state of the state … why not brave the hordes of political undead and stand yourself, Wooley writes

Long-dead politicians have risen from the grave like zombies to contest the state election

Stand for it.

“I’ve been stopped in the street. People are encouraging. Tasmanians know that Dean Winter forced this election,” said Premier Rockliff, campaigning this week.

Now, I don’t know who those Tasmanians are, but they’re definitely not the same ones who talked to me this week in Woolworths at New Norfolk, deep in the Lyons electorate.

They certainly knew who Jeremy Rockliff was but were much less enlightened about the role Dean Winter played in forcing them to another election.

The Tasmanians I met had less to say about Mr Winter than they had to say about state debt, the difficulty of getting medicalcare, the cost of the football stadium (although they all wanted a team) and of course the fact that the Liberal government somehow forgot to build a port for our billion-dollar ferries. Even among the most apolitical that was seen as a staggering piece of incompetence and probably as unforgettable as it might be unforgivable.

There is a political maxim in Westminster-style parliamentary democracy that poor opposition makes for poor government. Perhaps the Libs could, at a stretch, share the ferry fiasco with Dean Winter or more likely his predecessor who has since moved onto greater things in Canberra. Because the awful truth is that the Labor opposition has been missing in action for a decade and only now do most people even realise there actually is one. And that’s mainly because Jeremy keeps mentioning Dean’s name.

Federal Opposition leader politician Bob Hawke (l) with NSW Premier Neville Wran (r) in 1983. ‘Nifty Nev’ was right to never given name the opposition leader.

Decades ago, I interviewed NSW Labor premier Neville (Nifty) Wran, who ruled supreme in that state for 10 years. I was asking him about some argument he was having with the Liberal opposition leader and during a 10-minute interview I realised he hadn’t once mentioned that leader’s name. Afterwards I asked him if that omission was deliberate. “Of course, it’s deliberate. Never mention an enemy’s name. It only gives them oxygen.”

Nifty Nev was right. I cannot to this day remember the name of that opposition leader.

But this week Dean Winter should be getting quite a head spin from all the oxygen the Premier has been blowing his way.

My Labor sources tell me it costs about $100,000 in advertising to win a seat in the lower house, so I am sure Dean will be appreciating any free advertising.

The point about paid advertising in politics is that unless the new candidate is a local celebrity they are going to have to spend most of their first year’s after-tax parliamentary salary just to get elected. Advertising is expensive and so successful candidates are virtually buying themselves a seat. If they are fortunate to have generous donors supporting them, then you must ask yourselves, once in parliament to whom do they owe favours, to you the electors or to the vested interests who stumped up the price of their parliamentary seat?

Don’t rack your brains on that one; it’s a rhetorical question.

I should note that not one shopper in Woolies at New Norfolk failed to raise the price of groceries. Port-less ferries, a roofed or roofless stadium, the disinclination to vote again and again, those become inconsequential when people are merely trying to put food on the table.

But I am sure the Laborials will chorus: “That’s a federal issue.”

As the candidates declared themselves this week it became clear that this political contest should be known as “The Zombie Election”.

Political graves have yawned and given up their dead. Politicians we thought were long gone have risen like the undead in some ghastly zombie movie.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff at TasIVF in Hobart announcing access to fertility treatment will be made more affordable if re-elected. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

I could name them. But you probably know them, and if you don’t, they are such a bedraggled and sad collection of political has-beens that it seems unnecessarily cruel to have fun with their gruesome disinterment.

There are some independents among the revived, but mainly it is the major parties, presumably short of electoral funds and new talent, who have resorted to the darkest political art of resurrecting zombies.

This week on TV news we have seen the grim spectacle of the legion of undead lurching from the political graveyard, dusting off the soil as they stagger and reel towards another election.

And what’s really scary is they will come banging on your door.

My son Jim, who shoots news for Channel 7, told me that people were asking: “Is your old man standing for parliament?” I don’t know where the rumour started but I was asked the same question in Woolies this week.

It was the week when Donald Trump, asked about starting World War Three, inscrutably said, “I may do it … or I may not.”

But what about you? If you are upset about the state of the state, if you can’t stand it, why not stand?

You have until 12 noon Thursday, June 26, 2025. No point joining up with the Laborials where you might see dead people. Nominate a living person – yourself.

Your individual nomination form needs to be signed by at least 10 enrolled voters in your chosen electorate. To demonstrate you are fair dinkum you also need to lodge a deposit of $400.

The good news is you get the deposit back if you win.

All the details are to be found at https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/house-of-assembly/elections-2025/candidate-info.html I might see you there … or I might not.

— Charles Woolley is a Tasmanian-based journalist