The two major party candidates for Bass have gone head to head in a wide-ranging political debate - and both of them say they're in it to win it come polling day.
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The debate between Bass Labor MHR Ross Hart and Liberal candidate Bridget Archer - a joint initiative of The Examiner and the Launceston Chamber of Commerce - attracted a broad cross-section of the community to the Tramsheds Function Centre at Invermay on Wednesday night.
About 200 people were there to witness the debate, which was dominated by two core issues for Labor and the Liberals: health and the economy, respectively.
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Mr Hart expanded on his party's promise to establish a palliative care unit at the Launceston General Hospital. Ms Archer said she would "continue ongoing conversations" on the issue with relevant stakeholders, but stopped short of making a similar commitment.
Well-served by his background as a former member of the Governing Council of the Tasmanian Health Organisation in the North, Mr Hart was able to make a convincing argument on what he believed was required to improve healthcare in Northern Tasmania.
Meanwhile, Ms Archer drew on her extensive local government experience as George Town mayor, highlighting her knowledge of how the relationship between federal, state and local governments worked, particularly in regard to the Launceston City Deal.
Ms Archer repeatedly asked Mr Hart how Labor intended to fund its ambitious policy agenda. "What's it going to cost?" was her refrain.
Mr Hart noted that Labor had matched all the health funding the Liberals had pledged for the North.
Making a link between health and the polarising issue of Labor's policy to reform franking credits, Ms Archer said she'd received calls from people set to be affected by the policy, telling her they'd consider "giving up" their private health insurance as a result.
The Liberal candidate said she was of the view that the electorate wouldn't "vote for things to go backwards", citing the state's recent economic renaissance.
Mr Hart, on the other hand, said not everyone was experiencing a "golden age" in Northern Tasmania. He added that small business was "complaining about soft trading conditions"