"We need change. Big change. And that can only come from electing quality people." SURPRISE sale deals, money for non-existent hospital staff and support from a retired Tasmanian judge in Samoa were part of yesterday's last-minute jostling for votes before tomorrow's election.
It was a day of manoeuvring and counter manoeuvring by the party leaders on the last effective day of the five-week campaign before the official news blackout tomorrow on polling day.
Some of it worked, with Labor locking the Liberals into supporting the sale of the North- West Regional Hospital in a tactical manoeuvre that initially looked as though Health Minister Lara Giddings had breached caretaker conventions.
Opposition Leader Will Hodgman pounced on Ms Giddings's announcement that the Government had this week signed a $29 million deal with Burnie Hospital Ltd to buy the North-West Regional Hospital as a clear breach of caretaker conventions.
These demand that both political parties must be consulted when major contracts are entered into during an election period.
But the Government had already sought legal advice to ensure that the deal was legitimate as long as it was subject to a rarely-used "escrow" condition which demands that it be confirmed in writing by whoever is sworn in as premier after the election.
The hospital sale took attention away from Premier David Bartlett still being forced to defend Labor's dirty tricks tactics of the past couple of days, which included a telephone campaign against the Greens scrapped on his orders on the same day that it started.
It also diverted attention from Labor's only other major announcement two days out from the election.
Mr Bartlett said that a re- elected Labor government would provide $8 million over four years to boost clinical staffing in women's and children's services.
But much of the money was urgently needed anyway to shore-up services to secure the ongoing accreditation of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
And other funds were for staff at a new women's and children's hospital still to be built.
In other last-minute maneouvrings yesterday:
•Labor released part of a letter from former Tasmanian Supreme Court judge Justice Pierre Slicer now working as a judge in Samoa who wrote of his concern at the Greens proposal for judges to get involved in a prisoner's right to vote.
"It is against principle because it will entangle judges in a political discourse," Justice Slicer said.
•The Greens announced a $10.6 million package over three years to revitalise the southern Glenorchy civic precinct and Prince of Wales Bay marine precinct.
•Opposition Leader Will Hodgman announced during a whistle-stop bus tour of the North-West Coast that the Liberals would set up a new-look Department of Environment to replace the one scrapped by Labor.
READ MORE ELECTION COVERAGE: Pages 4-7
Email a friend