Former Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White (centre) made a successful transition to federal politics at her first attempt, successfully holding the seat of Lyons for Labor after sitting member Brian Mitchell retired. Photo: Rebecca White Facebook.
Despite comprising just a small slice of the Australian federal electorate when measured against the larger states, Tasmania epitomised the almost complete routing of the federal Coalition in Saturday night’s federal election.
The island state has just five of the 150 federal seats in the House of Representatives. But with the fall of the previous marginal and often bellwether seats of Bass and Braddon to the ALP, the Coalition now has no federal representation from Tasmania in the Lower House.
What is even more remarkable is the result comes just 13 months after Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s Liberal Party retained government in the state election with a slightly increased majority. But, upon closer scrutiny, perhaps there were some hints, as the Liberal primary vote in the state election dropped more than 12 percentage points, mostly to the Jacqui Lambie Network and the Greens.
Returning to the federal scene, as expected independent Andrew Wilkie has retained the seat of Clark. With 82.9 per cent of votes counted, Mr Wilkie has seen a +3.8 per cent swing in his primary vote to 49.3 per cent of voters there, ensuring him another term.
Labor’s Heidi Heck also saw a slight swing towards her of 1.3 per cent, leaving her sitting on a distant 20.1 per cent of the vote.
Liberal candidate Marilena Di Florio is currently on 13.7 per cent of the vote, a drop of 2.2 per cent, and the Greens’ Janet Shelley is close behind on 12.8 per cent after a slight drop of 0.6 per cent.
Next door in the seat of Franklin, ALP incumbent Julie Collins has comfortably been returned, with a swing towards her of 2.6 per cent to 39.3 per cent.
Ms Collins defeated first-time independent Peter George who polled 22 per cent of the vote. Liberal candidate Josh Garvin has scored 18.8 per cent after a swing against him of eight per cent, and the Greens’ Owen Fitzgerald also recorded a swing against him of 7.3 per cent to be holding just 10.1 per cent of the vote.
Mr George is an anti-salmon farming independent who, despite polling strongly for a first-time candidate, made little impact on Ms Collins’ vote and instead appears to have taken votes from the Liberals and the Greens.
The seat of Lyons is Tasmania’s largest seat, and was seen as a real test for the ALP with sitting Labor member Brian Mitchell retiring, and the former leader of Tasmanian State Labor Rebecca White being endorsed in his place.
But, as of Wednesday (7 May), Ms White can comfortably claim victory with a commanding 43.5 per cent of the primary vote, a swing of some 14.5 per cent towards the ALP.
The Liberals’ Susie Bower has seen a swing away from her of 10.8 per cent to just 26.4 per cent of the primary vote, while the Greens have also slipped by just under one per cent to hold just 10.5 per cent.
The division of Braddon covers most of Tasmania’s west and northwest, and has changed hands between Labor and Liberal candidates at almost every election since 2004.
Prior to the election it was held by Liberal MP Gavin Pearce who has retired, with Mal Hingston being endorsed in his place.
But as with many other seats nationally, the Liberals suffered a massive defeat with Labor candidate Anne Urquhart comfortable taking the seat with a 17.4 per cent swing towards her for 39.9 per cent of the primary vote.
Mr Hingston has won 31.9 per cent of the vote after a 12.2 per cent swing against him, while other contenders including the Greens, One Nation and independents all logged less than 10 per cent of the vote.
Over in the state’s northeast, it was a similar story in the seat of Bass. Sitting Liberal member Bridget Archer was elected to the seat in 2019 and re-elected in 2022.
But Labor candidate Jess Teasdale has comfortably won the seat with 40.2 per cent of the primary vote, a swing of 11.5 per cent towards her. Ms Archer has suffered a swing away of 8.6 per cent to see her holding just 31.2 per cent of the vote, while the Greens candidate Charlene McLennan has recorded 12.8 per cent of the vote with a slight positive swing.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff congratulated the Federal Labor Government on its election victory, saying he had reached out to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and he looked forward to continuing to work collaboratively with him in the best interests of Tasmania.
“I commend the local Tasmanian federal Liberal team on a hard-fought campaign and while I am disappointed for them, Australians have spoken,” he said.
“I want to particularly thank outgoing Member for Bass, Bridget Archer, who has served the voters of Bass for the past six years with courage and conviction. Bridget has been compassionate, genuine and forthright as a local MP and Northern Tasmania is better off because of Bridget’s advocacy.”
