Australian politician
Craig Anthony Garland is an environmentalist[3] Australian politician and fisherman representing the Division of Braddon in the Tasmanian House of Assembly since the 2024 Tasmanian state election.[4]
Political career
Garland first stood as a candidate in the Division of Braddon in the 2018 federal by-election. Despite being a political newcomer, his self-funded grassroots campaign attracted sufficient attention that ABC news reported that it seemed that both the Labor and Liberal candidates were treating him as their main opposition.
His decision to direct preferences on his how-to-vote cards to the ALP candidate Justine Keay ahead of the Liberal Party's Brett Whitely saw his attract the ire of then federal senator for Tasmania Eric Abetz, who held a press conference to highlight that Garland had pleaded guilty to an assault charge in Victoria in 1994. Garland responded that the charge related to an incident where he had stepped in to help a group of friends who were being bashed, stating "I've got nothing to hide whatsoever. If I was faced with the same situation again and had two young blokes being chased down the road being bashed, I'd do the same thing again." He added that "They're clutching at straws. Obviously, they're worried about me... They've got a minority view, they want to rule — they're an elitist, self-entitled pack of pricks." Senator Abetz later criticised Garland's use of offensive language in calling him a "prick".[5]
He went on to contest the 2019 election for the federal Senate in Tasmania, polling just over 1% of the vote.
In 2021, Garland co-founded The Local Party (later named The Local Network) and contested the state seat of Braddon in the 2021 Tasmanian state election for the party.[6] However, Garland left the party and contested the 2022 Australian federal election and 2024 Tasmanian state election as an independent.
In the 2024 state election, he received approximately 5.1% of the first preference votes in the seat of Braddon. After distribution of preferences, this rose to 11.1%, enough for him to secure the seventh seat in this electorate ahead of the fourth Liberal Party candidate.[7] The Liberal Party finished the election with 14 seats state-wide, four short of the 18 required to form government in their own right. They secured the support of the three members of the Jacqui Lambie Network, but still required the support of at least one independent. Garland said he was looking forward to the conversation with Premier Jeremy Rockliff about potentially guaranteeing supply, saying that the Liberals were "better off having me inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in, so we'll have some discussions shortly. I'm there for the same reason Jeremy is, so if we can put past differences aside and say, 'How can I constructively be involved in making things a bit easier and a bit better?', that's my intent."[8]
Policies
Garland is a fisherman and long-term campaigner against industrial salmon farming in the waters off Tasmania's north-west coast.[9] Before his first election campaign in 2018, he had already led protests against salmon industry practices, such as the relocation of wild seals from salmon farming areas to native fishing areas over 400 kilometers away.[10]
In the lead-up to the 2024 Tasmanian election he also ran on a platform of affordable housing and energy, while calling for a Tasmanian anti-corruption commission, similar to the IBAC in Victoria or ICAC in New South Wales.
Together with other independent candidates, he also signed The Forest Pledge in March 2024 in support of Tasmania following other states such as Victoria and Western Australia to end native forest logging, which he described as "industrial scale carnage... that has gone on for decades in Tasmania." This was qualified by support for selective logging.[11]
References
