Perhaps we should have seen it coming.
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Certainly, if past history is anything to go by, any time a political leader publicly talks about their leadership status, it often means things could be about to change.
Earlier in the week, Labor Leader Bryan Green was talking up his ability to lead his party to a state election victory in 2018.
Several days later, Mr Green was telling his fellow party-room faithful he would be quitting politics. His replacement – the relatively inexperienced Rebecca White.
Using the term ‘inexperienced’ may be harsh, but she has been in politics just seven years having won her first term in the seat of Lyons at the 2010 election.
She was re-elected third in 2014 so now to be in a position of potentially being this state’s next premier, ‘inexperienced’ is a relatively fair term to use.
That doesn’t mean she isn’t capable of leading by any means – far from it.
That point, however, wasn’t lost on the Liberal government media team, which put out a rather demeaning release on Friday morning that had one very pointed purpose – to highlight (in their opinion) just how ‘inexperienced’ Rebecca White was.
The release made a point of mentioning she had never worked outside of politics – a common criticism of many of our ruling elite.
She certainly isn’t the first politician who hasn’t worked outside of the political sphere and certainly won’t be the last.
It’s blatantly obvious from the outside looking in that Ms White’s ‘inexperience’ will be a major talking point for the Liberals when they announce an election date some time before March next year.
They not doubt will also target her over the party’s past political relationships with the Greens. To be fair, Ms White did not rule out out attempting to govern if Labor failed to win a majority of seats at the next election, as reported by this masthead in 2016.
With all that in mind, it’s important to remember that the proof will be in the proverbial pudding in terms of whether Ms White is ready to be Labor leader and whether she is in fact ready to be a potential premier of Tasmania.
Her actions will speak much louder than the Liberals’ words.
Until that time, the jury is still deliberating.