After a long and bloody battle, Tasmania’s election finally has finally come to an end, with the Greens giving shock 11th hour support to Labor yesterday, and Governor Peter Underwood granting his blessing last night, to return a minority Labor government in Tasmania.
Who’d have expected Tasmania to provide one of the most gripping and exciting state election battles in recent years? This one had it all: backstabbing, dirty politics, suspense, robots, Gunns, single transferable vote proportional representation…
But the election may have just been round one: Liberal leader Will Hodgman has already slammed the new government as one built on “deceit and lies”, accused the Greens of selling out, and has threatened to move a motion of no-confidence:
“In their lust for power, [the Greens have] sold out to the Labor party, soundly beaten at the election and have offered unconditional support – so when I said a vote for the Greens is a vote for Labor, I was right.”
“[Mr Bartlett is] forming an illegitimate government with the support of the Greens – Tasmanians now have a Labor-Green government that is built on lies.”
Stay tuned: it looks like this one might be just heating up.
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