More news

[xenith]

I seem to posting a lot of local news lately & I don't usually go into politics, but this could be interesting.

Noon, Saturday

Lennon won't budge

A defiant Paul Lennon is determined to stay on as Premier, despite a major poll last week showing only 17 per cent of Tasmanians approve of his leadership.


Monday, 6.30 am

Speculation the Premier will quit

Newspaper speculation that the Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon will quit today has come as a surprise to one of his closest advisers.

The Examiner is reporting Mr Lennon will stand down as Labor leader today and leave State Parliament.

A spokesman for Mr Lennon, Matt Rogers, says he is not aware the Premier has decided to qu
it.


Monday, 11.30 am

Lennon walks away from politics

Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon has confirmed that he is stepping down as the state's Labor leader and quitting politics.

Comments

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Seems like he was a success based on his own framing of the situation. I guess being a representative of the the people who elected you is too easy for some folks.

Seventeen percent is something that even W hasn't reached yet. Yet.

"What drives me in public life is a determination to make those sometimes tough and unpopular decisions that are necessary to provide a better future for Tasmania."

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

He was deputy premier to Jim Bacon who was holding the reins during the economic upturn a few years ago, after a rather bad stage. Bacon retired when he was diagnosed with lung cancer (died weeks later) and we got Lennon. Well OK there has been a state election since then and his government was re-elected and maybe they would have been without the dirty tricks too.

The general attitude towards him is that he's deep in the pocket of a certain timber company, and the Labor party in general is seen as being "for big business' (and the Libs have been playng the common man card, a reversal of party roles).

Was the awfully named "Shreddergate" mentioned in those articles? If I can remember the details, someone had been nominated as a judge in the Supreme Court and a memo written about, then it was decided in favour of someone else, and the memo was shredded. Until someone pulled it out of the rubbish and piece it back together and handed it to the Green Party, who confronted the minister concerned and he resigned and so on. Then right in the middle of this, Lennon pops up on the front page of the newspapers saying how important it is that Tasmania needs an AFL (Australian Rules national league) team! Now! And this is what he's going to do about it! Just bad timing, of course.

Anyway, we wait to see how much of the stink came from the top and how much is ingrained in the party.

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Well, one of the tricks of politics is to change the subject and get that media spotlight off the stain on your tie so to speak. Ultimately it comes down to the voters keeping the idiots in power.

Then again, if it's just a choice of idiots, there's a bit of a dilemma. In that case, I'd say keep rotating them until you get lucky. :)

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're supposed to quite as obvious about it though :)

Complacency, maybe.