Premier Jeremy Rockliff has confirmed an early state election will be held on March 23, 2024.
Rockliff made the announcement on after visiting Governor Barbara Baker at Government House on Wednesday afternoon.
“This election is about who is best able to restore the stability and certainty Tasmania needs, so we can take action on the issues affecting you right now,” he said.
“We do have a strong plan which is all about addressing these important issues, but the parliament has become unworkable.”
“I am not going to allow myself and my Government to be held to ransom for the next 12 months. It’s bad for Tasmania, and it’s bad for Tasmanians.”
He said the decision to call an election was made so Tasmanians can have their say, but urgent voters to steer clear of electing a “coalition of chaos”.
“Tasmania has come a long way over the last 10 years under majority Liberal Governments led by Will Hodgman, Peter Gutwein and myself and my team … we have gone from the worst-performing state to the best-performing state on most economic measures.”
“But I understand that, like the rest of Australia, we too are facing some serious challenges right now.”
Rockliff said minority government was “destabilising”, adding it “destroys confidence and is bad for our state and for Tasmanians”.
“Labor’s been in Opposition for a decade, but the truth is Labor and Ms White still haven’t learned the lessons of their disastrous deal with the Greens and they are not ready to govern.”
“Under the Labor-Green minority government, Tasmania went into recession, 10,000 jobs were lost and unemployment neared 8%. The forest industry was shut down, the $1.5 billion superannuation fund was raided, hundreds of nurses and police were sacked and they tried to close 20 schools.”
“Ms White and Labor sit on the fence on every major issue and they have no credible plan for the future of Tasmania … If Labor can’t govern themselves, they can’t govern Tasmania.”
Crossbench support is expected to be necessary to form a government, with experts predicting neither major party will achieve a majority.
