Early state election to be held on Saturday March 23rd

ABC NEWS (Australia)

After weeks of speculation Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has pulled the trigger on an early election. The premier is hoping the poll will deliver a majority liberal government after failing to broker a supply guarantee deal with two independents. Voters will head to the polls on March the 23rd.

Transcript

00:00 The Tasmanian government was plunged into minority last May when Liberals turned independent

00:08 MPs, John Tucker and Lara Alexander, quit the party and moved to the crossbench. And

00:13 it's been a pretty perilous existence for the government since then. They've lost some

00:18 key votes on the floor of Parliament. They found it pretty difficult to find that continuity

00:23 that they wanted. Jeremy Rockleff, a couple of weeks ago, sent an ultimatum to both MPs

00:29 after John Tucker threatened to move a motion of no confidence in the government. He said

00:34 they needed a new deal and that deal would have forbidden them from agreeing to motions

00:38 or amendments by Labor or the Greens. Both the independents said no. And then yesterday

00:44 we had some meetings, both of Cabinet and then the whole Liberal Party room, where it

00:48 was unanimously agreed that the only way to deliver the certainty and stability the Liberal

00:54 Party says is needed was to go to an early election.

01:00 Major party can form a majority government?

01:04 That's a really tricky question. At the moment, we have 25 seats in the lower house here in

01:10 Tasmania. The laws since changed in the last term, there's going to be 35 seats. So there's

01:16 five electorates here in Tasmania. They'll each have seven members going forward. That

01:20 obviously means it becomes a little bit easier to get elected. The quota shifts from 16.6%

01:26 to 12.5%. So that means for independents and the Greens and other parties, they've got

01:31 a better chance of getting in. And it makes it harder to get a majority. And so it's been

01:36 a big question. The government has been plunged into minority twice in the last two terms

01:42 after having been elected as a majority government. And they say that's the only way forward.

01:48 Labor is also arguing that it should govern in a majority. Based on the polls that we've

01:53 seen and the extra uncertainty of the 35 seat house, though, that seems pretty unlikely.

01:59 And it seems like they'll have to stitch together some form of deal or agreement with a minor

02:05 party. Both Labor and the Liberal parties have ruled out doing a deal with the Greens,

02:11 but they've been a little bit more circumspect about what should happen if other - if they

02:17 need the support of other minor parties. Here's what Liberal leader Jeremy Rockleaf had to

02:22 say.

02:24 When it comes to everyone else, and I've made my position very clear when it comes to the

02:28 Greens. When it comes to everyone else, some key principles will apply. I will not agree

02:38 to anything that constrains me or my government. I will not be trading ministerial positions

02:47 or policies.

02:50 That was Premier, now Liberal leader Jeremy Rockleaf. And here's what Labor leader Rebecca

02:55 White had to say on minority.

02:58 We live in a democracy and I'll respect the outcome. Our plan, though, is to win majority

03:02 so that we can deliver on our plan to deal with the cost of living, to cap and cut energy

03:06 prices and to repair the health system.

03:09 And so, Adam, what are the major issues?

03:11 Joe, Labor's already announced a policy on day zero of the campaign, as I'm calling it.

03:16 They've announced a plan to cap and cut power prices. So they're saying they'll save households

03:22 $400 a year on average in the first couple of years and then cap power prices at 2.5%

03:30 going on after that. So they're making cost of living front and centre of their campaign.

03:35 And then they'll also campaign on those sort of core Labor policies of health, education

03:40 and housing as well.

03:42 For the Liberal Party, who's been in power for 10 years now, they're saying that they're

03:46 delivering certainty and stability going forward. They'll continue to implement the policies

03:52 that they'd already put in place during their term. They're also very much in favour of

03:57 building a stadium, AFL Stadium, which is pretty contentious on Hobart's waterfront.

04:03 So there'll be a lot of debate about that in the campaign as well.

04:06 And has Labor got a clear position on that?

04:09 No. They say their clear position is they think that the stadium is a bad deal and they're

04:16 supportive of a team, but they want to renegotiate a deal with the AFL. The AFL has already said

04:22 that they won't renegotiate that deal. So it'll be really interesting to see how that

04:27 plays out should Labor end up being in government.

04:30 But in terms of a really clear position on the stadium, only the government so far has

04:36 said, you know, under all circumstances, that's what we'll deliver.

04:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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