Tasmania General Election 20 March 2010

Victor P Taffa

Following the return of the writs for the Tasmania State Election held on 20 March 2010 the makeup of the new Parliament is as follows:

House of Assembly

Seats Held

Labor                                                 10      -4

Liberal                                               10      +3

Greens                                               5        +1                        

Total                                                          25

The Liberal Party gained seats in Denison, Franklin and Lyons. The Greens won a seat in Braddon and now have a Member in each of the five House of Assembly electorates. Labor overall lost 4 seats.

Legislative Council

Seats Held

Labor                                                     3        Unchanged

Liberal                                                   1        Unchanged

Independent                                      11      Unchanged

Total                                                          15

On May 1 2010 there were 2 seats in the Legislative Council to be determined by the electorate. No ballot was required for the seat of Apsley and Tania Rattray Wagner was declared elected on 1 May 2010. The new Member for Elwick will be Adriana Taylor according to figures released by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission. Both members are Independent status.

The Bartlett Government returned to office in a weakened position. Premier David Bartlett had declared that “I will not do a deal with the Greens to form a Government.” Following the election this is precisely what the Tasmanian Premier did. Greens MP Kim Booth made an interesting observation about the new arrangements between the Labor and Greens Parties. The challenge for the Bartlett Government is to maintain a stable Government over the next four years.

Liberal Leader Will Hodgman is quite right to have felt ‘cheated’ at the outcome of the election given that the Liberal Party won almost 6,000 more statewide votes than did Labor. The election saw the retirement of The Hon. Michael Hodgman from politics. Liberal Leader Will Hodgman as with Liberal Leader Isobel Redmond in South Australia will hold the Government to account and be well placed to secure Majority Government in 2014.