David Bartlett
Encyclopedia
David John Bartlett (born 19 January 1968) is an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n former politician in the state of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, serving as the 43rd Premier of Tasmania from May 2008 until January 2011. He was an Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
Tasmanian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House...

 seat of Denison from 2004 to 2011.

Early life

He has been a resident of both Moonah
West Moonah, Tasmania
West Moonah is a predominantly residential suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is part of the City of Glenorchy Local Government Area. It is becoming a popular area. Most schools are private or religious...

 and Mount Nelson. His education started at Mount Nelson Primary School, with secondary education at Taroona High School
Taroona High School
Taroona High School is a co-educational state high school located in Taroona, a southern riverside suburb of greater Hobart, the capital of the island state Tasmania. The school has approximately 740 students in grades 7 to 10. In 2003, Taroona High School underwent a major redevelopment...

 and Hobart College
Hobart College (Tasmania)
Hobart College was, until January 2009, a senior secondary college located at Mount Nelson, in Hobart, Tasmania.In January 2009 it became the Hobart Campus of the Tasmanian Polytechnic and the Tasmanian Academy, formed as part of the Tasmania Tomorrow reforms.The Hobart Campus now offers courses...

. He completed a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 in Computer Science and a Graduate Diploma of Business in Professional Management at the University of Tasmania
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...

.

Prior to entering parliament, he had a career in the information technology industry and the public sector, and served as the Manager of the Tasmanian Innovation Centre and as an advisor to former Tasmanian treasurer, David Crean
David Crean
David Crean is a former Labor member of the Parliament of Tasmania. He is the son of former Deputy Prime Minister Frank Crean and brother to former Australian federal opposition leader Simon Crean....

.

Parliament

He first entered parliament on a countback in 2004 after then Premier Jim Bacon
Jim Bacon
James Alexander Bacon, AC was Premier of Tasmania from 1998 to 2004.-Early life:Bacon was born in Melbourne; his father Frank, a doctor, died when Jim was twelve, leaving him to be raised by his mother Joan. He was educated at Scotch College and later at Monash University, but he did not graduate....

 resigned due to cancer. Bartlett was Deputy Premier of Tasmania from April to May 2008 and Premier of Tasmania from 26 May 2008, succeeding Paul Lennon
Paul Lennon
Paul Anthony Lennon is an Australian Labor Party politician. He was Premier of Tasmania from 21 March 2004 until his resignation on 26 May 2008. He was member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for the seat of Franklin from 1990 until officially resigning on 27 May 2008...

.

Bartlett was re-elected in the 2006 election, receiving 12.97% of first preferences and topping the Labor vote in Denison; he was appointed Minister for Education and Skills in the Lennon
Paul Lennon
Paul Anthony Lennon is an Australian Labor Party politician. He was Premier of Tasmania from 21 March 2004 until his resignation on 26 May 2008. He was member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for the seat of Franklin from 1990 until officially resigning on 27 May 2008...

 Cabinet. As part of his parliamentary duties he serves on the Public Accounts Committee, the Environment, Resources and Development Committee and the Library Committee of Parliament.

On 10 April 2008 Paul Lennon announced Bartlett as the new Deputy Premier, replacing Steve Kons
Steve Kons
Steven Kons was an Australian Labor politician and member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly in the electorate of Braddon...

.

Premier

On 26 May 2008 Lennon made the surprise announcement that he would resign that day as Premier. Bartlett was sworn in as Premier later in the day by the Tasmanian Governor, the Hon. Peter Underwood, having been elected State party leader by the caucus.

During the March 2010 election
Tasmanian state election, 2010
The 2010 Tasmanian state election was held on 20 March 2010 to elect members to the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The 12-year incumbent Labor government, led by Premier of Tasmania David Bartlett, won a fourth consecutive term against the Liberal opposition, led by Will Hodgman, after Labor formed a...

 campaign, Bartlett promised to resign as Premier if the opposition Liberal Party won more seats than the government, and that a "back room deal with the Greens is a deal with the devil... I am not going to sell my soul for the sake of remaining in power".

The seat results were 10 Liberal (38.99%), 10 Labor (36.88%), and 5 Green (21.61%), a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...

. With neither of the major parties able to win a majority, and neither willing to negotiate with the Greens, Bartlett went to Government House with a letter urging the Governor to commission a Liberal minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...

. However, the Governor determined that Labor was in a position to offer more stable government than the Liberals. Since he still held his commission as Premier, the Governor was of the view that Bartlett was obliged to test the support for his government on the floor of the House of Assembly. Greens leader Nick McKim announced his party's support for Labor on matters of confidence and supply
Confidence and supply
In a parliamentary democracy confidence and supply are required for a government to hold power. A confidence and supply agreement is an agreement that a minor party or independent member of parliament will support the government in motions of confidence and appropriation votes by voting in favour...

. A Labor-Green agreement with joint ministry arrangements eventuated, leading the Governor to re-appoint Bartlett as Premier in a Labor minority government.

Bartlett said his minority government with the Greens was his biggest challenge of 2010: "I think the alternative would have been political chaos and parliamentary chaos, and that would be good for no-one. It had better work because with Tasmania facing hung parliaments and minority governments for the next decade or two as a regular part of our political landscape, we must find ways to make this work."

Bartlett government achievements include the establishment of an integrity commission and introduction of freedom of information legislation, successfully lobbying for Tasmania being the first to receive the National Broadband Network
National Broadband Network
The National Broadband Network is a national wholesale-only, open-access data network under development in Australia. Up to one gigabit per second connections are sold to retail service providers , who then sell Internet access and other services to consumers...

 rollout, and advocacy of Tasmania being the "national food bowl". However, education system reforms and forestry issues have been controversial for the government.

Resignation

Bartlett announced his resignation as Premier of Tasmania and Tasmanian Labor leader on Facebook on 23 January 2011, citing family reasons. Deputy Premier Lara Giddings
Lara Giddings
Larissa Tahireh "Lara" Giddings is an Australian politician and the 44th and current Premier of Tasmania since January 2011...

 was sworn in on 24 January as the new Premier. In the Giddings cabinet, Bartlett was appointed as Attorney-General and Justice Minister. He said he would remain in parliament but did not intend to contest the 2014 election
Tasmanian state election, 2014
The next Tasmanian state election is scheduled to be held before March 2014. The 16-year incumbent Labor government, currently led by the Premier of Tasmania Lara Giddings, will attempt to win a fifth consecutive term against the Liberal opposition, led by Opposition Leader Will Hodgman...

. On 11 May 2011, following the defeat of Labor's Lin Thorp
Lin Thorp
Lin Estelle Thorp was an Australian Labor Party politician and member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council in the Hobart based division of Rumney from 1999 until 2011. She was defeated by Tony Mulder at the elections held on 7 May 2011.Thorp was born in Hobart, Tasmania...

 in Legislative Council elections, he resigned from cabinet but said he would remain in parliament for some "months". On 13 May, following pressure from within Labor and the Opposition, he quit parliament entirely.

External links

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