PARTY HOUSE
HISTORIC Legislative Council shift
TASMANIA’S Legislative Council is set to be dominated by political parties for the first time after Upper House elections on Saturday.
Labor’s Bastian Seidel is in prime position to win the seat of Huon and Jo Palmer is certain to take Rosevears for the Liberals.
Dr Seidel leads incumbent Robert Armstrong by 12.6 per cent while Ms Palmer is 11.4 per cent ahead of independent Janie Finlay.
Both would replace independents meaning party-affiliated politicians would outnumber independents 8-7 in the Upper House.
FOR the first time in Tasmania, political parties are set to hold the majority of seats in the state’s traditionally independent Upper House.
The 15-member Legislative Council will comprise eight party MLCs and seven independents as a result of elections held in Huon and Rosevears
An update from the Tasmanian Electoral Commission on Sunday showed Labor’s Bastian Seidel had a strong lead over Huon independent MLC Robert Armstrong.
In Rosevears, where independent Kerry Finch was retiring, Liberal Jo Palmer was leading independent Janie Finlay.
Labor has claimed victory in Huon, a seat the party has not held since 1942.
Tapping into local discontent over jobs and services, the Labor campaign army steamrolled one-term independent Mr Armstrong.
Opposition leader Rebecca White said: “It’s a really terrific endorsement of the campaign that Dr Bastian Seidel ran here and the fact that he was talking about the issues that (people) care about — jobs healthcare, education and infrastructure.”
Dr Seidel, a GP, said there was a feeling within the Huon community that the region was being neglected by governments.
“Our community shouldn’t be coming second best all the time. We pay the same taxes, we pay the same levies, the same rates, we should expect a decent service,” he said.
Although too early to call Rosevears, it seemed former TV anchor Jo Palmer had an unassailable lead.
Premier Peter Gutwein said: “Jo has received the most primary votes counted to date.
“This is a strong endorsement of the Liberal Party’s policies and plans to rebuild a stronger Tasmania from the impacts of COVID-19.”
Election analyst Kevin Bonham said the Huon result was very strong for Labor.
“It’s actually up on what Labor got in the state election and it’s really unusual for the Legislative Council to do that,” he said.
Dr Bonham said it was unlikely anyone could catch up to Mrs Palmer in Rosevears.
He said her vote was in line with what she could have expected as a high-profile Liberal candidate and did not reflect Mr Gutwein’s recent record approval ratings.
“It’s not showing a huge coronavirus lift for the Liberals,” he said.
Dr Bonham said for the first time the Legislative Council would be occupied by a majority of party members.
However the voting balance in Tasmania’s house of review would not change, with a left and right-leaning independents replaced by party members from opposite sides of the spectrum.