Do we like Steve Martin?
Our score: 5 out of 10. No harmful words of his own turned up, but his votes ran against pay equity, the Uluru Statement and coal restrictions, and the public record is thin.
Steve Martin is not a household name, and that's the first thing to know. He was Mayor of Devonport in Tasmania, and he was number two on Jacqui Lambie's Senate ticket. When Lambie was kicked out of parliament over dual citizenship, he was the next cab off the rank.
The High Court unanimously cleared him to take her seat in February 2018. One Nation's candidate had argued that being a mayor made him ineligible, and the court said no. Then it got personal: Lambie said he should have shown “loyalty” and handed the seat back, moved to expel him from her party, and he sat as an independent anyway.
Three months later he joined the Nationals, becoming the first Tasmanian in their party room in over 90 years. He said he liked their focus on “natural resources, teamwork and, of course, people.” Reporting at the time said he had largely sided with the Coalition, and he was up for re-election at the next poll.
His first speech was a decent one. He went after the AFL for its neglect of Tasmania and said the issue was “about equality, community and national inclusion.” He also promised to oppose education cuts and pushed for biosecurity and a $100,000 fruit fly package for Tasmanian growers. That's parochial in the good sense.
The mess came in December 2018, when it emerged he'd spent at least $531,000 refurbishing a new Devonport office. Labor MP Justine Keay called it “unacceptable”. Martin defended it as efficient and practical, said the Department of Finance ran the process, and pointed to local jobs. The article reports no further action.
Now the harm check. We found no anti-LGBTQ+ campaigning, conspiracy talk or grievance politics from him, and no company-keeping problem. But They Vote For You shows him consistently voting against action on the gender pay gap, against implementing the Uluru Statement, and against banning new thermal coal mines. It also records him voting for Adani generally, and for reducing the corporate tax rate. Those are votes, not words, and the site also lists him backing the Paris Agreement, so it's mixed.