Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White has admitted defeat in the state election and ruled out any attempts to cobble together a minority government.
The decision is understood to have been made at a state administrative committee meeting early on Sunday morning.
According to reports, the decision also makes the White’s party leader position vacant.
Labor’s hopes for a minority government would have hinged on the Greens’ support, something White said throughout the campaign she would not do.
“It’s clear from the election result that no party can form majority government,” she said on Sunday.
“I am proud of my team, proud of the plan … and I look forward to continuing to work towards a better future for the state however the final numbers unfold.”
“I have said from the outset that Labor was campaigning to win the endorsement of the community to elect a Majority Labor Government and it is clear from the votes that have been counted to date that this is not possible.”
“I have also been clear that Labor will not do any deals with minor parties or independents and we asked Tasmanians to vote for Labor if they wanted to change the government.”
“While there has been an overwhelming shift in votes away from the Liberal party they still hold the most seats in this election and convention will dictate that they will be asked by the Governor to form government.”
“A 12% swing against the Liberals proves Tasmanians have emphatically rejected the reason Mr Rockliff went to an election, returning an even larger crossbench than before.”
“Jeremy Rockliff’s declaration of victory last night was desperate and ignored the fact that his party still has a long way to go before forming government.”
“The first test for Jeremy Rockliff will be to survive the party room meeting that will be made up of very different alliances now that Eric Abetz joins with Michael Ferguson.”
