Legislative Council Candidates

Please see the Tasmanian Electoral Commission website for the boundaries of each division.

Election day is May 5th, 2007.

Tom NILSSON was born in Hobart in 1976, and has spent most of his life here, living in Sandy Bay for the last eleven years. He graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1997 with a Bachelor of Economics, and currently has two jobs, one as a finance officer with a community organisation, the other with a security company.

Tom has been involved with a number of community organisations. He was Treasurer of the Tenants' Union of Tasmania for nearly five years, and has been a presenter on community radio station Edge Radio for nearly four years.

Tom has been a regular caller on talkback radio (mainly ABC Local Radio) for a number of years (he is known as "Tom from Sandy Bay"). He also regularly writes letters to The Mercury.

Tom believes the job of Parliament and the Government is to improve people's lives. He has been a critic of State and Federal Governments for a number of years, highlighting the flaws in policy and advocating greater efficiency and social inclusion. Examples of Government incompetence Tom has spoken about include the Government handing over responsibility for building accreditation to the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, and the Government's huge and wasteful subsidy given to the white elephant that was the Spirit III Sydney ferry service.

Tom is driven by the desire for a healthy, safe and economically diverse society, and believes that protecting the environment is essential to this.

He favours an increased use of public transport, particularly through the introduction of "park and ride" schemes, and also much greater use of rail for freight transport. Tom is also concerned about animal welfare issues such as battery hen farming.

Tom has campaigned on social justice issues, including affordable housing, gambling and same-sex relationships. He has strongly criticised the Legislative Council for blocking attempts to reform Tasmania's brothel laws.

Tom believes that, "Politicians need to be open and available to the community and prepared to listen and work in the interests of all constituents. They must be of high integrity and compassionate".

Tom has made a commitment that if he is elected to the Legislative Council he will serve in the role full-time, and won't moonlight with second jobs while drawing the generous pay, perks and allowances of an MP.

Contact: 0410 211155 or tomnilsson@tas.greens.org.au

» Launch: Download media release February 23, 2007 (86KB PDF).

» Pulp Mill: Download media release March 26, 2007 (69KB PDF).

» Southern Regional Conference: Download media release April 1, 2007 (69KB PDF).

» Download media release April 13, 2007 (79KB PDF).

» MLC Everywhere But Nowhere: Download media release April 26, 2007 (61KB PDF).

» Public Transport Strategy Needed for Hobart: Download media release April 26, 2007 (61KB PDF).

» Passenger Rail for New Hospital: Download media release May 1, 2007 (64KB PDF).

» Passenger Rail Between Hobart and Launceston: Download media release May 3, 2007 (60KB PDF).

» Jim Wilkinson's "Everyone Else Does it Defence" Bights Back: Download media release May 4, 2007 (72KB PDF).

» Download flyer (312KB PDF).

Neil SMITH is a self-employed electronics engineering consultant. He presently lives in South Hobart and has a family connection with the Pembroke division due to his daughter who lives at Lindisfarne.

In earlier years Neil came to Tasmania several times for bushwalking, caving and similar activities, and decided to settle here twelve years ago after falling with love with the clean, wild environment.

As "Hector the Protector" Neil sat in a tree for 12 days in 1998 to draw attention to an area of high-conservation-value old growth forest at Mother Cummings Peak, a forest recommended for protection in the interim Regional Forest Agreement and given to the loggers at the last moment. For this action he was eventually found guilty of breaching a law described by former Attorney-General Judy Jackson when in opposition as "draconian and intimidatory", and repealed when the Labor Party gained power.

Previous engineering and science jobs have been with Commonwealth Government research establishments, universities, wintering in Antarctica (1971 and 1982), and more recently a position as Senior Research Engineer with a small high-tech company at Tasmanian Technopark contracting to the Australian Antarctic Division.

Neil has previously stood as a candidate for the Greens in the Lower House seat of Lyons.

Contact: 0417 549 802

Policy information at www.neilsmithforpembroke.org

» Download flyer (244KB PDF).