INCOMING Labor Bass MHR Ross Hart will have two things on his side if the Coalition forms majority government: negotiation skills developed during his career as a lawyer and the ear of a party looking to repair its relationship with the state.
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Mr Hart was the beneficiary of a significant swing in his favour with former MHR Andrew Nikolic conceding defeat just two hours after polls closed Saturday night.
“In your wildest dreams you could imagine a comfortable victory,” Mr Hart said Sunday morning. “You could not imagine a 10.5 per cent swing.”
The Liberals will likely lose their three Tasmanian seats to Labor. Liberal Brett Whiteley conceded defeat to incoming Braddon MHR Justine Keay on Saturday and Lyons Liberal MHR Eric Hutchinson admitted he was unlikely to retain his seat.
Mr Hart said his volunteer-driven ground campaign based on jobs, education and health had resonated with voters and stood by Labor’s push against the privatisation of Medicare.
“When you have a system that relies on universality, as long as people have to pay something in order to access part of that service, then it means it’s no longer a universal system,” Mr Hart said.
Millions of dollars in pre-election promises will be undoubtedly difficult for Mr Hart to deliver under a Liberal leader and he said he still held out hope for a Labor prime minister.
Regardless, Mr Hart said: “My career as a lawyer involves finding common ground in dispute resolution. I’ll negotiate with anybody in order to further the interests of Bass.
“I’ll still be advocating for those (promises). Clearly the Liberals have got a big repair job to do with the electors in Bass if they’re going to re-establish some sort of trust.”
Mr Hart said Bass residents would be represented by Ross Hart the lawyer and community member.
“I’m a compassionate, caring person, I care about the plight of our more disadvantaged people in this community. The message that I gave the community in respect to jobs, education and health is all about delivering better outcomes for our community. I don’t have a mask that I wear, I am who I am.”
Mr Hart paid tribute to Mr Nikolic. “It’s always difficult for someone to serve a community (and) I have no doubt that Andrew has spent many hours and served the community to the best of his ability.”
