Paula Wriedt

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Paula Catherine Wriedt (born 11 December 1968, Hobart) is an Australian politician. She is an Australian Labor Party member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, representing the outer suburban Hobart seat of Franklin. She was first elected to parliament in the 1996 election.

Wriedt was appointed Minister for Education in 1998, becoming the youngest ever female member of Cabinet in Tasmania. As Education Minister, in December 2000, she launched "Learning Together", a major policy on education, training and information provision for the state of Tasmania. Learning Together promised a complete overhaul of the state's education system, introducing the Essential Learnings Curriculum as a trial way to assess and teach students. This has been hailed by some as being important reform, whilst the reporting-to-parents requirements have been derided by others as being too complicated. Learning Together also envisioned reforms to encourage participation in post-compulsory education, to engage schools more closely with their communities, and to promote lifelong learning by Tasmanians. Wriedt also funded the establishment of a number of child care centres co-located with government primary schools, and saw the raising of Tasmania's school leaving age from 16 to 17 years.^[1]

In 2002 she also became Minister for Women. In 2005, Wriedt initiated the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women to recognise the significant contribution that women have made to Tasmania throughout history.^[2]

Wriedt is the daughter of former state Labor leader and Whitlam Government Minister for Agriculture Ken Wriedt.^[3]

In the 2006 Tasmanian state election Paula Wriedt suffered a decline in her primary vote, very nearly losing her seat to Liberal challenger Vanessa Goodwin, in what was touted as a backlash over the essential learnings curriculum. As a result, she was stripped of her education portfolio, but retained the tourism portfolio to become Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment.

Following a cabinet reshuffle in January 2008, she was appointed Minister for Economic Development and Tourism.