Tasmania election: Women have the numbers in tight lower house

Tasmania’s House of Assembly will have a majority of women, in what experts say is a first for any state.

Rosalie Woodruff, left, with Greens leader Cassy O'Connor. Picture: Sam Rosewarne.

Tasmania’s new lower house has a majority of women — a first for any state parliament — while the Liberals have a majority of just one seat.

The carve-up of preferences yesterday, following the March 3 state election, resulted in the 25-seat House of Assembly having 13 women and 12 men.

The Hodgman Liberals were confirmed the winners, with 50.3 per cent of first preferences. However, the strong statewide vote did not translate into a large majority, with the party losing two seats to hold 13.

The Liberals will need the casting vote of the new speaker to pass legislation and face a re-invigor­ated ALP, which has gained three seats — and six new members — to hold 10 seats.

Despite its worst statewide vote, the Tasmanian Greens hung on to two of its three seats, with Franklin MP Rosalie Woodruff sneaking over the line, ironically on the back of preferences from Labor candidate Kevin Midson, an organiser with the right-wing Australian Workers Union.

 

Premier Will Hodgman said he regretted the loss of the two former Liberal MPs — Joan Rylah in Braddon in the state’s northwest and Nic Street in southern-based Franklin — but that the Liberal Party had the majority and a mandate to pursue its agenda.

“With a very similar vote at the last election we won 15 seats; on this occasion it is 13 and I regret that, particularly for Joan Rylah and Nic Street,” he said.

“But we received 51 per cent or thereabout of the vote. We have a majority … We are very confident that we’ll be able to advance the agenda … we took to the election. We do have a mandate to deliver.”

Election analyst Kevin Bonham said it was only the second time in Australian history a state or territory lower house had elected more women than men, the first being the ACT in 2016.

Federal Labor MP Julie Collins said it was “huge achievement” for her state.

Another winner was the left faction of the Tasmanian ALP, with the new-look parliamentary Labor Party to have no more than one right-aligned MP following the retirement of one member and the loss of another.

Under Tasmania’s system of proportional representation, each of the assembly’s five divisions elects five MPs, with how-to-vote cards banned and names rotated on ballots. This forces candidates of the same party to compete against one another.

In Hobart-based Denison, first-time Labor candidate and left-faction member Ella Haddad defeated sitting Labor MP Madeleine Ogilvie, of the right faction.

However, it appears the right faction will survive, with candidate Jen Butler late yesterday set to be elected for Labor in the fifth seat in rural Lyons.