On 19th July 2025, Independent Peter George was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly in electorate of Franklin.
Thanks to an exuberant campaign that attracted over 600 volunteers, Peter won the seat convincingly on first preference votes - the only candidate in Franklin to do so.
As a Community Independent Peter is accountable only to the people of Franklin, not to lobbyists, political parties or their corporate donors.
Peter is your Independent voice in Parliament. He wants to hear from you!
Thursday, Sept 17:
Wow!
Great to see so many students and young people outside Parliament to let MPs know what sort of future they want to inherit.
Weirdly, One Nation thinks they’ve all been brainwashed, as if young people can’t think for themselves It’s echoes of the past for me.
In the 60s & 70s young people frequently to let pollies know what they were thinking … anti-apartheid rallies, anti-war, green ban protests, Whitlam’s sacking … and more.
They helped shape Australia’s future.
Wed, Sept 16:
Anyone who lives in the Huon Valley knows how difficult it can be in a remote area to use of public transport.
Thanks to the volunteers of Circular Economy Huon, we’re all invited to help find better ways to serve the valley.
Hard copies will be finding their way around the valley but you can also go online here: https://www.circulareconomyhuon.org.au
Picture: Some of the moving forces behind the survey: Mary Haverland, Samantha Passey, & Steven Burgess and Circular Economy Huon’s Liz Smith.
My parliamentary colleague and gerontologist, Prof George Razay (Ind. Bass) is passionate about working with dementia patients and about what we can all do to reduce the likelihood of suffering from this disease.
He and I may sometimes find ourselves be on the opposite side of a parliamentary debate but in this we’re in lockstep!
It’s Mooncake festival time - 3,000 years old and one of the happiest times in the Chinese calendar, focusing on families and children.
Which made it a special privilege to be invited to speak at the Tasmanian Chinese Support Association at Kingston Hub where I talked about the long, long association of the Chinese community with Tasmania, stretching back to the 1830s, beginning, unexpectedly, with carpenters and cabinet makers and later miners.
My memory stretches back to when the idea of multiculturalism was introduced by the Whitlam government and it remains a seminal moment in Australia’s growth as nation.
We do well to always keep that in mind.
The electorate of Franklin positively hums with creative talent - in fact, I reckon our island probably has more creatives per head of population in the nation.
Last night saw the opening of “Artists of the Huon Valley” collective show at Salamanca’s Long Gallery.
It’s on until Sept 21 … and well worth visiting.
Friday, Sept 11:
Few things trigger my frustration more than politicians trying to win public support by being “tougher on crime” than anyone else by imposing minimum mandatory sentences for convicted offenders.
It undermines almost 300 years of jurisprudence that separates the powers of the Parliament from those of the judiciary.
Parliament’s job is to set maximum penalties.
Judges and magistrates impose them according to circumstances.
Last night, Tasmania’s Liberal/Labor coalition joined hands - yet again - to undermine this valuable tenet of democracy and justice by imposing mandatory minimum jail sentences for gun theft.
Political expediency rules!
Thursday, Sept 10:
In the end difficult decisions on how to vote in Parliament often come down to a matter of conscience.
Debate ran late last night on whether to ease laws restricting the use of sound suppressors on firearms in Tasmania.
I’d originally given my support to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers’ Carlo Di Falco, who advocated for the change but, after listening to some cogent and passionate debate in the House, I was persuaded to change my position.
When it comes to firearms, my approach is to apply an abundance of caution.
I won’t say Carlo was happy about my change of heart but he took it well.
And I’ll have disappointed some hunters who’d thanked me for the support but - as I say - in the end you have to vote with your conscience.
Wed, Sept 9: Labor and Liberal joined together - yet again - to defeat a sensible and really quite conservative motion calling for a proper investigation of Animals Australia’s allegations of cruelty in the salmon industry, impacting the “king of fish” in the pens as well as wildlife caught up in the industry’s practices.
The usual knee-jerk reaction to protect the industry seemed to be mostly based on protecting jobs, oh and a legal furphy from the Treasurer.
Here’s my summing up of the debate.
