COVER STORY
Voters in the ‘forgotten’ North West corner are fed up with being ignored and neglected. Even on the cusp of a by-election, the people of Braddon say they have been served up with a poor selection of recycled candidates
Election fatigue takes over in Braddon as disillusioned voters face another trudge to the polls
T he people of Braddon are suffering from election fatigue. Usually, when there is an election approaching, asking people about their voting preferences and important issues will provoke some sort of discussion, whether it be a constructive debate or outright hostility. It is a time when people are compelled to spend a little time thinking about what they want from their representatives, and the change they want to see as a result of their vote.
But if you mention the upcoming July 28 federal by-election to people in the electorate of Braddon in the North West, you are more likely to be met with a moan and an eye-roll than an argument.
The electorate is always marginal – five of the past seven federal elections have resulted in a change of party – so it tends to be a target for intense concentrations of political visits and grandiose promises around election time.
But in between elections, when the posters have come down and the voting booths mothballed for another four years, the people of Braddon feel abandoned, forgotten, and not actively represented by anyone.
Meanwhile, the Burnie paper mill has closed, the Caterpillar factory shifted jobs offshore, the Mt Lyell Mine on the West Coast closed, Devonport’s Australian Weaving Mills stopped manufacturing and there is a growing need for a new industry to provide long-term job security for the region.
Votes in Braddon tend to be bought, not earned, with the juiciest promise and the shiniest slogan tending to sway the result on the day. But in a region that is screaming out for new industries to replace the old dying ones, the baubles and trinkets of pork barrelling are coming to be seen by locals for what they are – short-term lures in place of long-term plans.
Yet there still seems to be an air of resignation in Braddon, as if voters have come to expect little more than bread and circuses from all levels of government and hold out little hope of things changing. Even now, in this by-election, there is a perception that the electorate is being offered the mere illusion of choice, a choice between two “regurgitated” candidates from the major parties – one who lost the last election, and the other responsible for triggering this by-election.
Having only recently gone to the polls in 2016 at the last federal election, the electors of Braddon are being forced back to the voting booth early, after the resignation of their incumbent Labor representative Justine Keay, as a result of the citizenship crisis that has swept Canberra this past year.
Since her resignation over failing to renounce her own British citizenship before running for election, Keay has rectified the issue and is recontesting her seat. Her Liberal opponent, in what is very likely to be a two-horse race, is Brett Whiteley who previously held the seat federally from 2013-2016 before being ousted by Keay in a tightly contested election in 2016.
And with the House of Representatives due to go to full election again before November next year, the winner of this by-election will only serve a little over a year before Braddon is sent back to the polls again.
On the day TasWeekend toured Braddon, red-shirted Labor Party members could be seen doorknocking houses in Penguin, tentative campaigning clearly getting underway, even though nominations had not yet closed and candidates not formally announced.
But rather than ask the candidates for their policies and slogans, we spoke to the voters, people in retail and hospitality who come in contact with a lot of other members of the public, to ask their observations and thoughts. What we found was an electorate tired of being courted and flirted with at election time, only to be neglected in between. An electorate that craves vision over platitudes. An electorate that wants to be fought for, not simply bought.
The message for candidates is quite clear: Braddon wants less talking, more listening, and more action from its elected representatives.
JACK MIHOCEK, RETAILER, BURNIE
The owner of Balls’n’Bumpers in Burnie, former Essendon AFL footballer Jack Mihocek is one of those great larger-than-life characters and, as a former Melburnian, someone who still has an outsider’s perspective on the region he has called home for the past 25 years.
As much as Mihocek loves Burnie, he says the place also frustrates him.
“We have beaches here that are as beautiful as any in the rest of the state and nobody uses them. And nobody does anything to enhance them and attract tourists,” Mihocek says.
“We don’t even have a pier where people can go for a walk or drop in a fishing line. These are simple things.”
He says a lack of vision from all levels of government has left the North West stagnant and people feeling hopeless.
“Burnie has nothing going for it, nothing here to attract tourists and nothing here to entice the locals to stay. There’s no jobs, big industries are disappearing and they’re not being replaced.
“We need someone to help start up a new industry here. Nobody is even suggesting anything.
“We had a milk-powder plant at Circular Head that employed about 80 people, which was producing powdered milk for the Chinese market, and it closed down. And apparently now there is a big factory being built in Geelong to cater to the Chinese baby-formula market. Now, why can’t one of our representatives get behind that as an idea? Support that, establish that industry here?”
Mihocek says his business brings him in contact with many people from all walks of life from around the area, and the impression he gets from the conversations he has is that Braddon is feeling jilted.
The perception, he says, it that politicians representing the region are simply seeking election to climb the ladder and soak up the big pay packets, and do not have their constituents’ interests at heart. “They don’t care about the homeless, the aged, the unemployed, the hospital system, they’re just fantasising, and we’re just the plebs at the end of the market who just nod our heads,” he says. And it is hard to feel like your vote can make a difference. “We don’t feel like we’re being actively represented, and they’re even recycling candidates now. It’s the same every election. The week before voting opens they finally start visiting the shops and introducing themselves. But the rest of the four years they never come in to say so much as ‘how ya going?’ Because they’re not interested.”
Mihocek says locals tend to accept what they are given, rather than make a noise or vote with their feet, which he suspects is a side effect of going so long without being listened to, and something that makes it easy for politicians to get away with doing very little – people simply won’t complain. “Everyone here, all the small businesses, they all have a lot to say. But nobody listens to them. Online sales, which attract no tax, are the death knell for every small shop in Burnie and Devonport. We can’t compete with that, but what is being done about it? Our federal members don’t ask us what we want done about it.” His advice to all candidates is quite simple, but stern. “Actually get out there and talk to us, not just at election time. Anyone will tell you I have a lot to say, but nobody listens.”
LINDA MURPHY, BARBER, PENGUIN
The beachside town of Penguin has a much more laid-back and peaceful atmosphere than the major North West population centres, and this seems to be reflected in attitudes towards the election.
“Nobody really brings it up,” says barber Linda Murphy of Zvoni’s Barber Shop. “I never hear anybody talking about the by-election. More of my customers want to talk about politics in the USA and North Korea than politics here.
“There was a bit more chatter during the last state election but, honestly, people are fed up with elections, they’d rather talk about the football now, and my customers come from all over the place, as far away as Lake St Clair.”
Murphy echoes the recurring sentiment that active representation is something of a myth in Braddon, saying in all the years she has run her barber shop on the main street, she never sees an elected member pay a visit in between election cycles.
She says she is sick of party politics distracting from real issues and candidates only seeming to run in order to secure the seat for Parliament, rather than to serve the community.
“My idea of an election is to scrap all the party politics and just vote for the best person. I think it should be that simple. We should all be on the same team here, it shouldn’t come down to party versus party all the time, that does nobody any good.”
Murphy says there is no need for grand gestures in the form of legacy projects and big infrastructure developments. Instead her wish list comprises simpler things.
“I’m sick of empty promises. And, I mean, the hospitals are fine, we don’t need new ones. It is basic things that will make a big difference to the people who live here.
“Cheaper air flights out of Devonport Airport would be somewhere to start making a difference. My brother had to fly to Melbourne for a funeral a while ago and paid $600 return. Doing something to secure another carrier operating out of Devonport or a few extra flights would be a big help.
“But until people see something tangible being done, they’re not going to be interested in big promises.”
LEIGH MURPHY, RESTAURATEUR, DEVONPORT
Harbourmaster Cafe owner Leigh Murphy prefaces his comments by letting us know he is a Liberal Party member but his observations of attitudes and issues in the region are a warning equally to both sides of politics.
He has noticed a general apathy around the upcoming election, annoyance that it has to happen at all, and a defeatist attitude around anything improving, regardless of which party wins the seat.
“No matter who wins here or what promises they make, we are going back to another full federal election in potentially eight months. After this one, we have to do it all again, and I think people are really disengaged as a result of that.
“I’m hearing a lot of chatter about what a waste the by-election is, that it was basically triggered by Justine Keay and how long it took her to stand down, which has some people annoyed. And a lot of people don’t even realise it is happening at all. Neither candidate has gone into election mode yet, and people are tired of it already. Between now and the end of July, people will just switch off.”
Murphy says the reason he got involved with the Liberal Party was because he, like many in the region, was frustrated at the lack of active federal representation in Braddon. He says the North West, in particular, is a forgotten corner of Tasmania both at state and federal levels of government.
“The single biggest issue on the North-West Coast for years and years has been health. It gets a lot of attention, [originally an independent, now Nationals Senator] Steve Martin built his profile off the back of the hospital. But I think more than anything people want security, they want to know their jobs are secure.
“In this region we are particularly impacted by the economic downturn over winter, everything goes dormant. People will just close businesses for two months because it’s not worth staying open. The level of disposable income here tends to be much lower, so people tend to stay within their own comfort zone and I don’t think any political intervention will change any of that.”
Whichever candidate eventually wins the seat on July 28, Murphy has some simple messages they should heed. Braddon needs to be unified and inspired, and any sitting member who rests on their laurels after winning office does so at their own risk.
“People around here just don’t earn that amount of money, so if they get any sniff of [a politician] who is just earning a huge pay packet while not doing enough, it will immediately get people off-side,” Murphy says.
“Also, the two major centres here are always competing. People from Devonport will go to Bunnings in Launceston before they’ll go to Bunnings in Burnie. People talk about needing change but before that can happen we need to get better at working together to advance our interests as a region.”
PHIL EVANS, BUSINESS OWNER, QUEENSTOWN
Supermarket and homewares store owner Phil Evans is equally frustrated by the lack of political representation on the West Coast, which is also part of the Braddon electorate, saying it would be nice to see more activity on the ground, instead of more and more grand promises.
The former West Coast Councillor says: “We have seen some solid government support to try and get Mt Lyell [Mine] up and running again, which is great, but we still feel our politicians are far too Hobart/Launceston-centric.
“And in rural areas where things can be slow to happen at the best of times, this leads to a lot of disillusionment.
“The total population on the West Coast is about 4400, so it’s a low voter base and politicians don’t see it as a viable place to spend time supporting when there are bigger population centres to focus on.
“Take all those feelings of abandonment and isolation from the North West and multiply it by 100 and that’s how it feels on the West Coast. Other places you can wander into an electoral office and complain, but we never really see them between elections because nobody has their electoral office on the West Coast.”
Evans says if there are still resources to be extracted or used on the West Coast, then those industries should be pursued. But with the increasing trend for those big resource companies to employ fly-in-fly-out workers and bring in external experts instead of training up locals, he thinks it might be time to look at other industries for the sake of sustainability in the workforce.
“I am a small businessman myself and I think it would be good to support the transition towards an entrepreneurial economy, support small businesses to expand and upgrade what we can currently offer to customers.
“Instead of the old government systems of training and basic education for jobs that aren’t there, we should offer support for individuals and groups willing to have a go at starting up businesses for themselves.
“There are other opportunities to be developed here, other resources, but trying to get other partnerships with government or private enterprise can be tough here.”
RAYMOND ARNOLD, ARTIST, QUEENSTOWN
Meanwhile, West Coast painter and printmaker Raymond Arnold is more optimistic about the western region’s future.
“I’m originally from Melbourne and first came here in the early ’80s in the Franklin Dam days,” Arnold says. “Later I got a job at the arts school and I used to take students to the West Coast for arts projects.
“When I retired, I realised I wasn't done in the west and moved to Queenstown and bought the old school. I thought it was an area that had been treated badly, people made lots of money out of exploiting it, it had been environmentally trashed, but now I see it as a place full of possibilities as we increasingly think about Tasmania as a cultural and natural wonderland.”
As he uses copper etching plates in his artwork, Arnold says it would be hypocritical of him to oppose mining, but he does believe it is time for a new economic paradigm on the West Coast. All it needs is the political leadership to take it there.
“We need support in that transition of our economy out of resource-extraction and buggering the environment and into a service economy, which the rest of the world is increasingly getting into.
“And I don’t mean the kind of high-end lodges that rich people fly in to in helicopters, but accessible hospitality, wilderness tourism. New Zealand is a real figurehead in that regard. They have led the way with that and we should look towards them for inspiration.”
He says he has seen both Brett Whiteley and Justine Keay in town on various occasions, and thinks both have done a fair job of keeping in touch with the West Coast community, but says he will most likely vote for the Greens candidate Jarrod Edwards.
“I think they [The Greens] probably need to reorganise themselves at both a state and federal level, but we need someone who understands how to get that balance between the resources we need to extract and the environment we need to preserve.
“Their preferences will likely flow to Labor, which is OK. I don’t see Justine Keay as having had much of a go in the role yet. I think she’s quietly efficient, not a big personality who you see all over the news, but I think she has the best interests of the electorate at heart.”
But Arnold suspects the usual mantra of “jobs jobs jobs” will likely be employed by the major parties to sway the maximum number of votes.
“I know employment is important, obviously, but in these times of sloganeering and easy targets, that’s the easy mantra to fall back on,” he says.
“If I’d had a job in Burnie at Caterpillar or the paper mill, and had seen those jobs disappearing as they have throughout Australia, yes, I’d be a bit unhappy. But the North West is a place that is always at odds with itself like that, with that clash between industry and the environment.
“It was all about the dams when I got here, and now it’s all about the fish farms, with the promise of job creation held up against the environmental concerns.”