Former Tasmanian Labor leader Bryan Green reflects on life after politics

Bryan Green has reflected on a turbulent time in his personal life since he relinquished the Labor Party leadership four years ago, and shared his thoughts on the state of the party today.

IT HAS been a turbulent time for Bryan Green since he relinquished the Labor Party leadership four years ago.

He has struggled with anxiety, his tourism business was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and his second marriage broke down.

“It came as a bit of a shock. I found it a lot more difficult than I ever imagined,” Mr Green, 63, said of life after politics. “It took me a fair while to work out why.

“And then I came to understand it’s just the competitive nature of politics. You’re competing to get elected, you’re competing once you’re in the House, in the chamber.

“You’re trying to win, so it’s all about the competitive nature of the game and when you retire or leave, it just stops instantaneously.

“So you’ve got no competition and I just felt sort of hollow in a lot of ways.”

Mr Green was working at the vast Twin Lakes Sporting Retreat at Buckland, which he bought before he quit, but he felt lost.

Former Labor leader Bryan Green at his Twin Lakes Sporting Retreat. Picture: Richard Jupe

“I did get a little bit of professional advice and counselling and that helped,” he said.

“I say this to anyone: if you’re feeling a bit anxious or whatever, try to achieve something each day. So even if it’s cutting the grass or painting something you’ve put off doing or building something that you’ve been wanting to do for a while, just get some sort of achievement over the line each day and then you feel good.”

An avid hunter, fisher and shooter, Mr Green is in his element at Twin Lakes which offers trout fishing, pheasant shooting, or just some rural peace and quiet.

The fishing side of Twin Lakes is a haven for interstate and overseas visitors, but the pandemic caused that side of the business to grind to a halt.

“It’s been a hell of a struggle,” Mr Green said.

He’s thankful the Inland Fisheries Service forewent licence fees and business is picking up, including full bookings for the upcoming pheasant season.

Mr Green misses the people of the North-West he represented in the seat of Braddon for nearly 20 years from 1998 to 2017.

But he is loving his “terrific little community of Buckland and Nugent”.

He has joined the local fire brigade, is on the Nugent hall committee and is chair of a group of friends fighting to save the local church, built in 1846, but is now under threat of sale as part of the Anglican Church redress scheme.

Bryan Green with his dog, Grits, at his Twin Lakes Sporting Retreat. Picture: Richard Jupe

Mr Green is still a member of the Labor Party and tries to attend fundraisers and meetings when he can.

A former fitter and turner who rose to the position of deputy premier, he faced two court trials after signing a controversial deal with the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation in 2006 which effectively gave them a monopoly over builder accreditation. Mr Green said he regrets he ever signed the TCC document.

“I’ve thought about that a lot and it made a big difference in my life, obviously in a whole range of ways. Even now, I know full well that I didn’t sign the document for the reasons that they said I did.”

He is proud of the achievements of the governments he served from the “halcyon” days of the late Jim Bacon to Lara Giddings.

“I’m tremendously proud of what Lara did, and to a degree (David) Bartlett, but how she tackled the Global Financial Crisis was fantastic when we had to deal with the collapse of various industries.

“The policies we put in place at the time did cost us massively politically, but we tackled them head on and we didn’t shirk it.”

Mr Green dismisses suggestions that Labor could be relegated to Opposition for some time because of going into government with the Greens in 2010.

He believes Premier and Treasurer Peter Gutwein will have tough decisions ahead because of the cost of COVID.

“Gutwein has gone OK but he basically abdicated himself from any decision making, other than to say he’s just going to follow medical advice and as a result of that he’s looked like a very good leader.

“This next period is going to be interesting when it comes to paying for it all, so there’s going to have to be some tough decisions.”

Mr Green is no longer in the public limelight and reluctant to comment on the breakdown of his second marriage.

“It’s private, but at the end of the day it’s sad for everyone concerned and difficult.”

In the meantime, Mr Green is enjoying focusing on the future and hosting a visit from his 85-year-old father Brian, from Wollongong, and looking forward to the birth of his fifth grandchild.

He’ll have a big crowd at his retreat when he welcomes his three daughters and other relatives when his mother turns 85 later this year.

Winning will be tough but Green backs White

IT will be “extremely difficult” for Labor to win the next state election in 2022, former Labor leader Bryan Green says.

But Mr Green, who stood down as leader in March four years ago, believes the party should campaign hard on the government’s failures in areas including forestry and housing.

“The lack of housing has been a disgrace. In the forest industry they said they would make available lots of timber to the industry and, effectively, they’ve not made available one new stick of timber to the industry.

“They said they were going to build a prison at Westbury and basically they were run out of town by half a dozen people and now they want it where it’s almost impossible to build because of the environmental issues associated with the land.”

Mr Green has no doubts that Labor leader Rebecca White will lead Labor to the next election and will one day be premier.

Bryan Green with Rebecca White in 2017. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

He is not worried that Ms White will be distracted by the birth of her second child, which is due in June.

“I’m sure she has got really good family support. Those support networks are the key to (her) being able to do the job, and from what I know she has a terrific support network,” Mr Green said.

“She’s a young person who has a life to lead at the same time as playing an active role in public life and she shouldn’t be cut any slack.

“She’s got to work hard, be out there talking with people and be available.

“I think she’s got the qualities to lead the state, without any doubt.”

With a state election due by March 2022, Mr Green also has taken a swipe at Labor factional infighting over the preselection of candidates.

“I think that any opposition is going to find it very difficult,” Mr Green said.

“As we see in Western Australia right at the moment, or in Queensland, any crisis brings forward leadership and the focus is then on the leader of the state.

“I’m a realist and it’s going to be extremely difficult. (But) I’m not giving them away because who knows what can happen in the (election) campaign.”

The Labor Party is squabbling over moves by the dominant Left faction to dictate who is preselected for the next election.

Mr Green implored the Labor Party to select the best candidates.

“We need to preselect the best people with the best chance of winning and, at the end of the day, squabbling over preselection does no one any good at all,” he said.

“Democracy starts in the party, and you have to have a good, strong democratic party.

“If we can’t be fair to each other within the Labor Party, well then, we’re not going to be fair to anyone.”