Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am just about to get to you. Congratulations to returning members and to new members. As you know, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I am in the unusual but certainly not unique position, having two other members in this House in the same position, of being a new member again, a resurrected MP, which is probably rather apt around Easter time. My return journey to this place, like that of my colleagues no doubt, has taught me some very valuable lessons, some personally very painful I must say and others very salient—salient perhaps for others in this House, new and renewed, high and low.

Today gives me an opportunity to share some of these, if I may. As I said, this journey is both a personal and a political journey. At its heart are the people and communities of the north-west coast of Tasmania and King Island—that is, the electorate of Braddon. I have the privilege to live in and represent a truly beautiful part of the world. Physically, the electorate of Braddon, from east to west, takes in the townships of Port Sorell and Latrobe, the city of Devonport, the towns of Ulverstone and Penguin, the city of Burnie and the towns of Somerset, Wynyard, Stanley and Smithton—and the gem in this north-western crown is King Island itself. To the south lies the fertile rugged hinterlands of pasture, mountains and forests and to the west lies the magnificent rugged west coast with its mineral wealth, forests and abundant fishing, bordering on the electorate of Lyons, so ably represented by you, Mr Deputy Speaker.

When we talk about economic activity, several traditional industries are associated with Braddon. It is renowned as a major food-producing area, particularly in relation to vegetable growing and processing. I have always said that the soil is so fertile where I live you could throw a toenail in the ground and grow a foot. It is so wonderful. Dairy, beef and fish are iconic products of the region, along with forestry, papermaking and mineral producing. Our region also is, as some may not know, a quality producer of fine carpets and towels. Braddon’s tradespeople are well known for their practicality and skills. The region has a long history of light industry often associated with the larger more traditional manufacturing and processing industries. Newer industries have emerged along with an economy that is becoming more diversified, so necessary in the light of challenges facing our more traditional manufacturing industries. Light industries and an innovative range of service industries have grown up around the wind energy industry, for example. Innovative companies service the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Local small and highly creative IT companies have emerged. Viticulture, with the production of wine and with the spirits industry, continues to expand. Tourist ventures further seek to cash in on this magnificent environment.

There are many strengths in our region and in our communities. Businesses leaders and organisations strive to build on those in partnership with local, state and federal governments. But, like so much of regional and rural Australia, my region faces many challenges. My region is an ageing one—we still lose many of our young to other parts of Australia and the world, often to seek better education and careers prospects; many never return, however, to work and live and settle with their families. Comparatively low educational standards, low university participation rates and low retention rates to years 11 and 12 are hindering productivity and employment opportunities for many of our young. The reliance on attracting and retaining professional services and skills is doubly difficult because of this, a problem I know we share with many regions. Whilst unemployment has declined in our region, we still have a comparatively high national rate of youth and long-term unemployment. This, along with the ageing population, puts even more pressure on the demand for social services, benefits, health and wellbeing services, and social and physical infrastructure such as housing, aged-care facilities, communications and transport. My region is positively responding to many of these challenges, and I look forward to encouraging and supporting individuals, businesses and communities in this process. I am really proud to say that many of this new government’s policies are designed to support this process and that I have been able, in the last few years, to actually have some input into some of these at the national and electorate level.

I first campaigned as a federal candidate for Braddon in 1996 and managed a three per cent swing to Labor in very difficult electoral times. I continued to campaign between 1996 and 1998 and, with a swing of around 10 per cent, won the seat in 1998 with a campaign that cost around $17,000. If my memory serves me correctly, the polling said we could not win. In 2001—again, against the odds—we had a further three per cent swing in Braddon to Labor.

For me and my region, the period 1998 to 2004 was indeed a time of exciting change, opportunity and challenge. The innovative Cradle Coast Authority came into being and, with politically and organisationally rejuvenated local councils and regional leadership, the region began to coherently adjust to the changing economic and social challenges facing us. A dynamic state government led by the late Jim Bacon promoted and nurtured a resurgent, outward-looking and more confident Tasmania, and the north-west coast contributed to and benefited from this renewed sense of optimism.

Much of this legacy is still with us as we seek to consolidate and then expand on our successes and come to grips with the challenges that continue to face us. One of these challenges is sociocultural in nature. It involves a need to adopt practical, realistic expectations of service availability, delivery and costs. This is never more so than in the area of health services, matching traditional expectations with modern standards of sustainable service delivery, safety and cost.

In 2004 I lost my seat. Needless to say, I was devastated, along with my family and hardworking and loyal staff. I am confident, however, that what happened in Braddon, rather than to Sid Sidebottom, is a salient lesson—not just for me but, I humbly suggest, for others, both politicians and political operatives, in this place. Indeed, another returning member, the member for Canning, has returned to the House, and I thank him for his personal support.

I see a parallel between the 2004 election and its result in Braddon and this election past in November 2007. In both cases, Braddon reflected the national verdict and, I suggest, for primarily the same reason: crossing the line between acceptable practices and policy and those which were not—in short, violating the fair go principle. Until the 1998 election, Braddon had voted conservative for nearly 25 years after a long stint of voting Labor. The change coincided with the introduction of the GST by the Howard government which disadvantaged many low-income people in Braddon. I would like to claim that my standing as a candidate made a significant difference this time; however, the pollsters told me: ‘minimal’. In 2001, federal Labor was preferred again to a Howard government intent on selling off Telstra, increasingly strident about industrial relations and pursuing social policies that divided rather than united Australians—sound familiar?—even if many in Braddon sympathised with Mr Howard’s strong anti-boat-people policies. But many of these same folk saw the policy for what it was; the methods became increasingly objectionable.

In contrast with many other parts of the country, Labor’s vote in Braddon went up by about three per cent, reflective again of a good national campaign led by Kim Beazley in the face of the after-effects of 9-11, the Tampa affair and ‘children overboard’. On 9 October 2004, I lost my seat in a major swing against Labor of around seven per cent. I can honestly tell you that I knew this was going to happen when I heard of the extent of Labor’s forest policy on the Monday of the final week of the campaign, when Mark Latham delivered his bombshell in Hobart and immediately flew out of the state. Howard’s subsequent forest policy was far less explosive in comparison, although still substantive in effect, but it was greeted with enthusiasm by the industry and many in my electorate, in comparison with the Latham blitzkrieg policy. The images of workers greeting and cheering John Howard at the Albert Hall in Launceston later in the final week all but ended the campaigns in Braddon, Bass, McMillan and Eden-Monaro.

While some analysts will say that to blame the forest policy for the loss of these seats is somewhat simplistic—and I will grant that the Latham Labor campaign was becoming progressively more volatile and problematic the further the election campaign went—I have no doubt that the loss of Braddon was guaranteed. Indeed, the last EMRS poll taken in Tasmania late in the campaign had Labor in Braddon at around 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote leading into the last week. However, we literally saw—and I mean literally saw—and heard prepolling voters turn dramatically away from us after the Monday with the same message: ‘Your radical forest policy was a disaster for our region and working families.’ The people of Braddon voted accordingly and I have always said that I can understand why. Call me vain, but I never interpreted it as an anti-Sid vote, and that is why I announced on the day after the election that I would seek preselection again—to put right what I believed was a wrong policy and, most importantly, what I saw as a betrayal of working people. It was not just the end in this case; it was also the means.

To announce without consultation and without notice a policy which so affected the lives and jobs of so many people in my electorate and state, both directly and especially indirectly, was both an insult and terrible politics. It was not fair in any sense of the word. Labor had to go in Braddon and so did I as its representative. I cannot deny that I was bitter over what happened, and it took me over 12 months to come to terms with this loss. However, my family and close friends were very supportive and I took heart from the many people I met who encouraged me to stand again. The Labor Party was also supportive and I thank all those who helped and encouraged me to keep at it. I also had a chance to directly help correct our flawed forest policy, which I was able to do through direct personal lobbying and nagging over three years.

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