Sue Hickey fights to get Liberal Party preselection for the next state election

Sue Hickey has decided to stand again in Clark, and is in the battle of her political life as she fights to get Liberal Party preselection.

SUE Hickey is in the battle of her political life as she fights to get Liberal Party preselection for the next state election.

Ms Hickey, 62, has decided to stand again in Clark but realises it will be an uphill battle to get party re-endorsement and re-election.

Speaker Sue Hickey. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“I’ve been told it will be stacked against me,” Ms Hickey said.

“A Liberal staffer told me to my face, ‘why don’t you resign and leave on your own terms’ because he thinks the process will be ugly.

“Preselection shouldn’t be about ideologies, but your skills set.

“I hope the selectors can move on from the events of the past and acknowledge the contribution I have made, and can make.

“I hope they will see that I’m prepared to work together to get things done.”

Senior Liberal Party sources have told the Sunday Tasmanian it is unlikely Ms Hickey will get endorsed.

“Sue’s burnt too many bridges and has bagged the party,” he said.

“She only got over the line last time because of the casting vote of the chair of selectors and because (Premier) Will Hodgman publicly endorsed her.

“People didn’t want the Premier humiliated and embarrassed if she wasn’t ­endorsed.”

Political analyst Richard Herr said he believed it would be difficult for Ms Hickey to get Liberal ­endorsement.

“It will be hard because of the way in which she got the speakership and she hasn’t done the government any favours,” he said.

“With the high approval rating of Peter Gutwein the party will not be desperate to get candidates.”

Ms Hickey has experienced a “tough” three years because she said she believed she was sent to “Coventry” after taking on the role of Speaker after the shock nomination by Labor and the Greens.

“I was the only new Liberal member elected and the 13th member, so I helped make the majority for the government,” she said.

“The thing that upset me the most was that I never heard from the Premier (Mr Hodgman) — not even a text message — after I was ­elected.

“Only one member of the parliamentary Liberal team sent me a thumbs-up emoji.”

The former Hobart Lord Mayor maintains she had no inkling she would end up in the Speaker’s chair.

“I thought a male was planning to take the chair,” Ms Hickey said.

“The concept of disunity and disloyalty did not enter my head at the time. In the Liberal Party you can cross the floor, but in reality you can’t come back.”

Having accepted the nomination, she was removed from all government communication when she became Speaker and chose not to attend Liberal Party meetings.

Ms Hickey said her relentless pursuit of housing and health issues came after her electorate office in Glenorchy was inundated by people desperate for help.

“I was unprepared for the tsunami of pain people were going through,” she said.

“People living in tents at the showgrounds and others who were living in drug dens. It was frightening.

“Women waiting years for gynaecological procedures — so I had to lobby for funding and changes and sometimes go public to get my voice heard because I could not live with these things on my watch.”

Ms Hickey said she has taken a step back from being publicly critical of the government since Peter Gutwein became Premier.

Speaker Sue Hickey and Premier Peter Gutwein. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

She said he needed clean air to focus on the pandemic.

She has fortnightly meetings with Mr Gutwein, he is always available and she feels she has been listened to.

“I’m proud of his leadership, he’s a reformist, but he’s tough and believes in delivering government services, but more efficiently,” she said.

“I listened to his state-of- the-state address this week and I felt I’d had an influence in many of the announcements. It was big, bold, brave and accountable.

“He is a popular Premier and deserves to be.”

Ms Hickey pointed to a long list of achievements from her lobbying, especially in housing and health.

If she is not backed by the Liberals, Ms Hickey said she would run as an independent.

“I’ve always been a Liberal, I believe in Liberal philosophies of fairness and small business being the engine room of the economy, and getting people into jobs so they have a purpose in life and better access to education and health,” Ms Hickey said.