BASS Greens MHA Andrea Dawkins started her parliamentary career with handshakes and hugs from colleagues and opponents alike, but has promised to be a fierce advocate for the causes she holds dear.
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The Launceston alderman and small businesswoman was sworn in yesterday, and delivered a maiden speech in which she praised her predecessors and spoke of her commitment to the environment and the local food movement.
Ms Dawkins, 50, said she became an activist when she became a vegetarian, which eventually led to her starting Launceston's Fresh on Charles in 1999.
"The values of Fresh centred on animal welfare, local, healthy food, a vibrant, diverse offering of entertainment and it promoted a co-operative model," she told Parliament.
"The venue was open to all and many of those who chose a values-based lifestyle and an understanding and examination of the ethics of modern life made it their second home."
Ms Dawkins said she had long opposed the plan for a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, and would continue to fight any future proposal.
"The Greens want the Tamar Valley pulp mill buried forever," she said.
"If there is a sense the pulp mill is back on the table, people will be out in numbers as they always have, as they always will, to defend the valley they love and the forests that bring life to this earth."
Ms Dawkins paid tribute to the late former deputy mayor of Launceston, Jeremy Ball, saying his passion and wisdom had helped her to become an MP.
She also thanked former Bass Greens MHA Kim Booth, saying she had spoken to him on the phone last week while he was surfing in Western Australia.
"I asked him if I could call him back in five minutes as I was in a meeting and he said, 'you'd better call back in five because I'll be going back in in 10 and I can't wait'," she said.
"I could hear his grin and I hope he spends many, many hours in the surf and tinkering with his cars, whiling away his well-earned retirement."
Ms Dawkins said she hoped to represent those like her in the seat of Bass and across Tasmania.
"I guess I'm getting closer to a point where I represent people like me - 10 per cent of people are vegetarians for ethical and health reasons - that's a lot of people out of the population," she said.
"I'm seeking a place where I feel like I'm representing people who I get and who get me."
Ms Dawkins said she wanted to establish a statewide local food economy plan with the support of the Liberals and Labor.
"There are so many ways to approach this - it's a health issue, it's an education issue, it's an employment issue," she said.
"We need to work out where there isn't fresh food and how to get fresh food to those areas.
"It's also about getting the hospitality sector at the very forefront of understanding and passing on what it means to have Tasmanian food and wine."
