Tasmania election: Labor Leader Rebecca White concedes Labor won’t form government

Labor Leader Rebecca White reveals her party won’t be able to form government after Saturday’s election results. What’s next for Labor.

Tasmanian labor leader Rebecca White at Richmond. Picture: Chris Kidd

Rebecca White has remained coy on her future as Labor leader and concedes it is “unlikely” the party will be able to form government after picking up just 10 seats at the state election.

The Liberals suffered a 12 per cent swing against them, but few of these votes went to Labor, which enjoyed only a modest 1 per cent swing in its favour as voters flocked to minor parties and independents over the major parties.

Speaking at Richmond on Sunday, Ms White said it was “clear” that no party could secure a majority and it seemed “very unlikely” that Labor would be able to form government.

“On the basis that the votes look like the Liberal Party … will win more seats than the Labor Party, convention dictates that they will be asked by the governor to demonstrate they can form government in parliament or with a coalition arrangement,” she said.

“So it’s up to [Premier] Jeremy Rockliff to demonstrate that he has the support to do that.”

Labor’s path to a majority would have required them to negotiate with the Greens and potentially offer them concessions, which is a course of action Ms White had ruled out pursuing.

Tasmanian labor leader Rebecca White at Richmond. Picture: Chris Kidd

“There are still a lot of votes to be counted and there are still some seats that are uncertain. I’m hopeful that the Labor Party can pick up more seats,” she said.

Questions are now beginning to swirl around Ms White’s future as leader of the party, after now having led Labor to three consecutive election defeats.

She said she was “still the leader” but did not indicate whether she intended to continue in the role or whether she would seek the support of her colleagues to retain the position.

“Any circumstance like this requires the caucus to come together and make a decision about the next steps that they take,” Ms White said.

“I respect my colleagues and when we know the final make-up of the parliament, noting that there are still votes to be counted and still members who are to be elected, we’ll sit down together respectfully and have a conversation about what the next steps are.”

Not all Labor members are pleased with how Ms White has responded to the election result, with Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union acting state secretary, Jacob Batt, saying the leader’s speech on election night effectively suggested the party “will likely only form minority governments in the future”.

“This is simply not true and is a desperate attempt to create a narrative to shift blame and present that an awful primary vote is somehow a positive,” he said.

Ms White said on Sunday that she had “hope that we will be able to form majority government … at future elections”.

“That’s, of course, what our members and our candidates and our volunteers and our affiliates work so hard to deliver every single election campaign,” she said.

“We campaign to win elections and that’s, of course, going to be our objective every single election going forward.”