Retiring Legislative Council President Sue Smith does not plan to look at her diary for a while.
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The Montgomery MLC left Parliament for the last time last night and will end a 30-year career in public life at midnight on May 3, the day before the Legislative Council election.
Mrs Smith was elected alongside former Launceston MLC Silvia Smith in 1997, the first time in 40 years the upper house had two female members.
She was the first female member of the Ulverstone council (now the Central Coast Council), its first female mayor, the first female president of the Local Government Association and the first female president of the Legislative Council.
Now, six of the 15 Legislative Councillors are women.
Mrs Smith credits the increased numbers to education.
''Women are much better educated nowadays than in the past, and education of course brings with it opportunity,'' she said.
She does not support quotas for women in government, saying ability not gender should decide who gets the job.
''Those who elect are people who look at the skills and ability and elect on that, and that's the way it should be,'' she said.
``If you are going to be a timid little lady that sits down the back and waits to be a part of a policy that says you'll be the person next, you may only last one term.
``You have got to have more than the fact that you are female. You have got to be able to box it with the best of them.''
No one could doubt Mrs Smith's boxing ability.
Farewelling her in Parliament yesterday, Derwent Labor MLC Craig Farrell said he had come to dread Mrs Smith's rare speeches in the house, because her pointed statements were hard to rebuke.
''The government comes away quite bruised from their meetings with Madam President,'' Mr Farrell said.
It got another bruising yesterday, when Mrs Smith said the government's habit of interfering in business was killing innovation and hampering industry.
She also criticised government for not engaging with Legislative Council committees, and urged Tasmanians to support the lower house being increased to 35 members so first-term politicians were not given ministerial portfolios.
Mrs Smith has been offered positions on a number of boards, but said she had made no plans past a long-awaited month-long trip to Canada and Alaska.
''My greatest satisfaction is when people in my community have come into my office, and sometimes it's as simple as a phone call for someone who has been worrying for months over an issue that I can fix,'' she said.
''I'm confident I've done my best, and it's somebody else's turn.''