This article is part of my 2024 Tasmanian state election coverage; main page includes a link to effective voting guide and candidate guides and other articles.
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I feel somehow responsible, but it is probably coincidence. A few days ago I decided to put a bit of low-level Hung Parliament Club propaganda back in its box by explaining why I do not support four year fixed terms for Tasmania. Among other things they infringe undesirably on the Premier's ability to seek a fresh mandate when the Parliament goes pearshaped. I explained at the bottom why I do not consider New Zealand style party hopping laws to be an alternative solution. Days later, along comes the government with a policy for ... New Zealand style party hopping laws. What hell is this?
For those who came in late, we are here in part because the former Gutwein Liberal Government preselected one Lara Alexander to run as a candidate for Bass in 2021. She wasn't seen in the campaign except for her campaign manager complaining that she was being muzzled. She got next to no votes but was later elected on a recount. It has subsequently transpired that Alexander is a very odd politician - in particular her talent for inscrutable and apparently self-contradictory comments about confidence in government. Had the Liberals allowed her to speak for herself before nominations closed this would probably have been obvious within minutes and they could have disendorsed her and picked somebody else. But they didn't. We are also here because - for some reason that has never been explained though I've wondered if it was anything to do with this - the Government later decided to make a former TV presenter Primary Industries minister instead of a career farmer, and the latter started or continued accumulating grudges.
This is not the first time the Liberals have had unity problems - in the previous term Sue Hickey nabbed the Speakership against her party's nominee Rene Hidding and then voted against party policy on gender birth certificate reforms and mandatory sentencing. However Hickey remained a Liberal until she was disendorsed, precipitating the 2021 election.
