Tasmanians swung squarely behind Labor back in 2016 unseating sitting Liberals in Bass, Braddon and Lyons and winning four of the five House of Representative seats on the Apple Isle.

With momentum behind Labor nationally combined with popular independent Andrew Wilkie’s vice-like grip on Tasmania’s fifth seat – the recently renamed electorate of Clark, formerly Denison – the chances of the Coalition reclaiming territory in the deep south seemed pretty remote.