Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
LegislativeCouncil.ManyformerconvictsfoundtheirwaytoVictoria,luredby
the gold rush of the 1850s, as labour was in strong demand. This brought about
depopulation and economic stagnation in the southernmost settlements.
The global depression of the 1890s affected Tasmania’s export-based economy
significantly, and there was considerable support for combining in a federation
with other colonies and the promise of greater interstate trade that would follow.
In the first referendum of 1898, Tasmanians voted overwhelmingly in favour of
Federation, with a more than 81 per cent voting ‘yes’. At the second (1899) referendum,
the ‘yes’ vote was even higher, with nearly 95 per cent in favour. Both ‘yes’
votes were the highest of any jurisdiction, considerably higher than NSW, where
fear of a loss of influence saw ‘yes’ votes of 52 and 57 per cent respectively. 10 Clearly,
Tasmanians thought that they would benefit from closer economic relations with
the wealthier mainland states.
During the 20th century, Tasmania was much affected by global convulsions
and electoral volatility increased, although the Labor Party was dominant for most
of the period. 11 From a population of just over 200,000 people, Tasmania sent
more than 15,000 to the First World War. Nearly 2,900 died and about double that
number returned wounded, many having been gassed. There were fewer casualties
in the Second World War, but still about 4,000 in total. 12 The state’s key economic
transformation, hydro-industrialisation, enabled electricity generation based on
central highland dams. Said to be inspired by later Premier Walter Lee’s visittothe
pre-war German Ruhr Valley, where the economy was booming, the Tasmanian
Hydro-Electric Department (later Commission or HEC) was created from private
companies in 1914 and continued building dams until the 1980s. Industries
attracted to the state as a result included paper, chocolate, zinc and aluminium
production,aswellaswoolandcarpetmillsthroughoutthestate.
However, the HEC’s decision to flood the iconic Lake Pedder in the southwest
so horrified a growing number of conservation-minded people that it led
tothecreationoftheworld’sfirstgreenpoliticalpartyin1972–theUnited
Tasmania Group, later the Tasmanian Greens and subsequently the Australian
Greens. Lake Pedder was flooded, but another attempt to dam the Franklin River in
the early 1980s led to global protests, a blockade and the intervention of the federal
government,backedbytheHighCourt,topreventthedambeingconstructed.
The Franklin River dispute marked the end of the hydro-based industrialisation
strategy and confirmed the importance of tourism-related industries to the state as
large-scale manufacturing employment continued to decline. A legacy of the dambuilding
period is that Tasmania has Australia’s highest level of renewable energy
production, at 93 per cent, and is poised to export more renewable electricity to
10 Australian Electoral Commission 2011.
11 The Labor Party governed Tasmania for 45 of the 48 years between 1934 and 1982, for example,
longerthaninanyotherstate.
12 Watson 2015.
284