Ballot papers cross the line
LISA SINGH
THE Lisa Singh story shows how badly disappointing our democratic processes have become, when the candidate with the most individual votes in the recent Senate election in Tasmania failed to win a seat, falling behind two of her own party’s choices of whom most of us have never even heard. While the major parties have always relied on the laziness of the electorate in voting according to party-directed preferences rather than thinking for ourselves, the inclusion of above-the-line voting is only recent and was put in purely to give the party apparatchiks even more control over who actually ends up being elected.
For the sake of having Senate elections that better reflect the purpose for which it was created, to represent the interests of the individual states rather than the major parties, we badly need this element of our ballot papers to be removed.
Silver lining
I HAVE known Lisa Singh for about 20 years, well before she entered State Parliament. I am deeply disappointed that Labor failed to support such an engaged, intelligent and hardworking senator.
If there is a silver lining in this cloud, it is that some deserving group is likely to benefit from her being available to the community. So we have managed to dump a hardworking senator, in Lisa Singh, in favour of people that no one outside of the party have heard from since they put their hands up for election last time.
Need cross-section
I AGREE with Margaret Reynolds that “Local preselectors ignored the reality that only Senator Singh at Number 1 had any chance of returning three Labor senators. Her strong personal vote in 2016 and 2019 demonstrated the benefit of a high-profile articulate senator in helping a party to project its policies. Yet this political reality was swept aside” (“Factions fail so let’s try grassroots,” Talking Point, June 17).
Labor Party candidates need to represent a cross-section of the community. It is dominated by union guys or those who work for Labor members of parliament. Hobart and Glenorchy city councils endorse rate increases for 2019-2020 financial year If they just did council work it may be worth it. Factions are another cancer that Kevin Rudd tried to remove unsuccessfully. The Tasmanian branch of the Labor Party needs to bring reforms urgently if it wants to win government.
Shameful loss
THE Tasmanian branch of the ALP should hang its head in shame with the loss of one of the most professional intelligent and highly regarded politicians in the Labor Party (“Talking Point,” June 17), albeit Lisa Singh must be congratulated for her outstanding political service to Tasmania and her void will take years to fill.
The days of voting above and below the line on election day are long past the useby date and if continued will again contribute to the demise of quality candidates at election time such as Lisa.
Insult to intelligence
FORMER senator Margaret Reynolds’ critique expresses the opinion of many Tasmanian electors how the intelligence of the electorate was insulted by the selection committee of the ALP in placing Lisa Singh in the unwinnable position of number four on the Senate ticket (Talking Point, June 17).
Lisa repeated her 2016 results and polled more first preference votes than all other Tasmanian Senate candidates at the 2019 elections. The Liberal Party realised the error of its ways in 2016 and put Senator Richard Colbeck at the head of the ticket for the 2019 election.
Climate … or cable ties
INTERESTING that in its wisdom our benevolent Hobart City Council can declare an all-encompassing climate emergency but is unable to stop its employees from covering the landscape in discarded plastic cable ties.
Mermaid Cafe nostalgia
I WAS wondering if Jon Kudelka’s “THINGS THAT USED TO BE GREAT BEFORE THEY WERE RUINED BY TOURISM TOURS” (Cartoon, June 15) might be able to fit the old Mermaid Cafe site at Kettering into its itinerary? (Warning: A three-hanky alert might be needed for former patrons.)
Labor deserved it
LABOR deserved to lose after their treatment of Lisa Singh.
Dam filling
HAS anyone else noticed that the below-average rainfall to date has miraculously filled the Orford dam. The smell of chlorine when showering is more noticeable as well. Something tells me I smell a rat.
Eternal mysteries
IT seems to me that life is about mystery, often eternal. The mystery instigated by Julie Gough’s art (TMAG), by middens in our Tarkine, by the natural face of kunanyi, by orchids at Cambridge. Why destroy these and limit future generations’ heritage?