Libs lay out policy plan

THE State Government continues to say it will not go to an early election. It will see out its term and go through to March. So adamant have they continued to be, we will take them at their word.

Indeed it would appear disingenuous now if, as many pundits (us included) have suggested, they were inclined to pull the lever pre-Christmas should the Upper House again block intended key reforms.

But, while it is still more than seven months away, the weekend’s Liberal State Council provided a crystal clear picture of the agenda upon which they intend to run. Jobs and the economy and health will be their big-ticket items.

This doesn’t comes as any particular surprise. Exclusive polling done for the Mercury late last month asked Tasmanians which issues were “most important” to them.

Across all electorates, health came top at 36.4 per cent. Jobs and the economy was a close second at 32.8 per cent. Education was a clear third at 14 per cent.

Interestingly, issues that have in recent times dominated the public debate scored at the lowest end of the scale. Fish farms came in at 2.9 per cent and marriage equality — the issue that has threatened to tear apart the federal Coalition — came in at 3.3 per cent. These issues were overshadowed by energy security, 6.9 per cent.

The Liberals are right to run hard on these core issues. They will not want to make the same mistake as their federal counterparts, who took their eye off the ball and ran a Canberra-centric campaign that

The party ... now has the next seven months to explain precisely how it intends to achieve these lofty goals

didn’t appeal to the hearts and minds of Tasmanians, opened a vacuum for a manipulative “Medi-scare” campaign and cost them three seats in the process.

Premier Will Hodgman has set a target to reduce Tasmania’s unemployment rate to the lowest in the country by 2022 if re-elected.

A day earlier, Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the state would set two new “ambitious targets” for health by the end of their next term: ensuring 90 per cent of people were treated within clinically recommended time frames for elective and 90 per cent of emergency presentations in and out of emergency departments within four hours.

The party, which remains the preferred manager of the economy in the eyes of Tasmanian voters, now has the next seven months to explain precisely how it intends to achieve these lofty goals; to move them beyond rhetoric into reality.

It also will run hard on its record of improved job figures, business and consumer confidence and a brighter economic outlook (and will be keeping its fingers crossed for no major changes in the GST carve-up coming out of a Productivity Commission review).

As Labor has likewise foreshadowed, these will be the key issues to define the next election.

We can only hope that, from here, the next State Election campaign can be a genuine contest of ideas on these key themes rather than degenerating into the farcical and shallow fear campaign that marred the federal poll and seems to be a daily theme of our existing political discourse.

We won’t hold our breath.