Tasmania election: Labor ahead on agricultural policies
Tasmania’s top farming body believes a Labor win will be better for the state’s farmers as it stands, ahead of Saturday’s federal election.
A Labor win in Tasmania’s state election on Saturday would be the better outcome for the Apple Isle farmers, the state’s top farming body says.
Tasmanians are again going to the polls just 16 months after the most recent election, to either re-elect incumbent Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff or Labor challenger Dean Winter.
TasFarmers chief executive Nathan Calman said as it stands a Labor victory would be a better outcome for Tasmanian farmers, but that there is still time for both parties to boost commitments to agriculture.
The group’s election scorecard has the Liberal Party rated 2.5 stars out of 5, with Labor rated 3 stars.
“We basically did the hard work for the parties. We put forward a number of policy positions that the parties could adopt as their own that have come from members in the industry,” Mr Calman said.
“There were some areas where both parties showed commitment and interest, and then there were others where that simply didn’t occur.”
While both parties have been given the same (albeit low) rating for a variety of policy areas, such as irrigation development, forestry, local government reform and environmental outcomes, TasFarmers believes Labor has better policies in regards to workforce, climate change and drought preparedness, while Liberals are favoured on wool harvesting issues.
With all 35 seats in the House of Assembly up for grabs and a hung parliament looming large, the form the new government takes is up in the air.
The Nationals party has said it has no agreement with the Liberals for a coalition, while Mr Winter has ruled out a coalition deal with the Greens, but has not ruled out relying on its parliamentary support to form government.
Mr Calman said potential coalitions would be something to be talking about next week, but that it would be foolish of any party ruling out being willing to work with other parties, with the first priority for any new government being to rebuild confidence in agriculture.
“The Tasmanian business community and agricultural sector are really just looking for stability and a government that can actually achieve outcomes for the full four-year term that the government is elected to sit for,” he said.
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