Braddon, Bass feel PM love

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison’s attention will turn to Tasmania’s marginal seats of Bass and Braddon today when he visits the North and NorthWest of the state.

Mr Morrison’s arrival in Tasmania follows a turbulent week for the Federal Government, which became the first to lose a substantive vote on the floor of the House of Representatives since 1941.

Bass and Braddon will be key election battlegrounds for the Coalition, which lost both seats to Labor at the 2016 election.

Labor’s Justine Keay narrowly increased her margin to 2.3 per cent at last year’s Braddon by-election.

Ross Hart holds Bass by 6 per cent after unseating Liberal Andrew Nikolic. Mr Morrison spent time this week in Queensland, where he visited flood-affected communities and announced support for a South East Queensland city deal.

Meanwhile, southern Tasmania awaits the signing of a promised multimillion-dollar Hobart City Deal, initially expected to be finalised last year.

The detail of Hobart’s City Deal is yet to be released but the region’s four mayors — from Hobart, Clarence, Kingborough and Glenorchy councils — signed off on a draft plan last year.

This month, the mayors cosigned a letter to Mr Morrison and Premier Will Hodgman voicing their concerns about “the protracted program for finalising and signing” the City Deal.