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.
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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]