Wightman

Politics is not a game. It should be the foremost leadership dynamic and cornerstone of any democracy. Cabinet should be the most important boardroom of all, tightly secured by padded doors to ensure confidence, due process and ultimately good governance. Parliament and parliamentarians should be held in high regard. This is clearly not the case. Why? Because there remains an undertone of what may be termed “cunning” which is required to be successful. And for some, that’s just the ability to barricade and insulate themselves against their own team. I will never accept that’s the way it should be. As one old-stager said to me, if you can’t act lower than the lowest low, then why bother. I didn’t, as my belief, whether it be realistic, idealistic or moralistic is that politics and politicians should be better. For much of my life, I read the newspaper from the back. The sports’ results and stories dominated my thirst for local news content, at first as a...

I’m not from a family of swimmers. My heritage is to blame. My mother, and father, dec. hail from Belfast, Northern Ireland. My father taught himself to swim, breaststroke, at the local swimming pool during the Second World War. My mum remains apprehensive around water. My paternal grandfather was an electrician at the famous shipyards Harland and Wolff. The RMS Titanic was built there, completed in 1912. No wonder I struggled to float as a child. Like many Northern Tasmanian children, I was sent to Glen Dhu Swimming Pool under the tutelage of the legendary Mr (Grant) Garwood, dec. I struggled, unable to lift my head above water and petrified of being out of my depth. Upon realising I was so far behind, I also felt rather embarrassed. Slowly, and with access to the Basin and Riverside pools, I developed the most basic water confidence. However, my uncertainly was reinforced each time we visited, particularly as my brother, now a strong swimmer, was already representing ...

Right now, Hobart enjoys a wonderful reputation. It is the flavour. Brimming with tourists, projects, and a vibrant arts’ scene, we express pride in our capital city. From an economic point of view, we are steadily climbing the ladder in reports such as CommSec State of the States, moving from fifth to fourth on the range of indicators, and unemployment has reduced to 5.7 per cent, equal second of the states. However, our participation rate, remains 4.7 percentage points below the national average at 61 per cent, easily the lowest in the country, which indicates that we must continue to focus on population growth, job creation and education. Yet, during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, the commentary to a person, about our state was often negative. The positive change during the last twenty years has been stratospheric. And as I travel regularly to the mainland with the Property Council of Australia, all my colleagues and members want to talk about is Tasmania and in particular,...