Another hung parliament solves nothing about Tassie’s dire budget
The unfortunate reality is that neither the Liberals nor Labor have any kind of mandate to do what needs to be done to put the state’s finances on a more sustainable footing.
With just under two-thirds of the vote counted, Tasmanians appear to have elected a parliament very similar to the one that they elected just 16 months ago.
Despite a 3 percentage point primary vote swing towards them, the Liberals seem unlikely to improve on the 14 seats they held in the previous parliament, leaving them four short of a majority on the floor of the House of Assembly. Labor, which suffered a 3 percentage point primary swing against it, may lose one seat, leaving it with nine. The Greens have held on to their five seats, while it is possible that there will be five independents, one more than in the previous parliament.
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Saul Eslake is former chief economist of ANZ Bank and of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Australia, and is now principal of Corinna Economic Advisory based in Hobart.
