 On 23 December 1982, Sanders resigned from the Tasmanian Parliament.He claimed that the new government, led by the Liberals' Robin Gray, was becoming totalitarian in nature over the Franklin Dam issue and, in particular, over the way in which anti-dam protesters were being treated by the state's law enforcement sector.Sanders spent the next few years as a small businessman, selling an ecologically sound, efficient wood heater of his own design called the "Sanders Hot Prospect Stove" from the back of a truck at the Salamanca Market.