When I moved to Tasmania at the end of last year, I didn’t realise I would only have three months to brush up on local politics before being asked to vote in a state election. Not to worry! I’m smart, politically engaged and eager to learn, so figuring out how to vote for the betterment of my new home shouldn’t be a challenge, right?
Wrong. As a newbie, trying to wrap my head around this election has been a humbling and infuriating experience.
It starts with the flow of information, or lack thereof. Australia’s highly concentrated media landscape is most stark in Tassie. Hobart has only one major newspaper. Where is this former mainlander — with a healthy distrust of News Corp-owned papers and commercial radio — to go to research names I’ve never heard before? Besides the ABC and a few independent newswire-style sites, local digital journalism is paywalled.
Young people overwhelmingly get their news online and from social media — and while Australia has some fantastic independent digital news publications, the political coverage tends to focus on Canberra, NSW and Victoria. Tasmania doesn’t get covered with the depth its population deserves, which leaves those new to the state or new to voting with little hope of figuring it out.
Pair that lack of quality news with the complicated Hare-Clark voting system, used to elect seven MPs per electorate. In the single-transferable vote method candidates must reach the quota (12.5% of formal votes cast, plus one) and once they’ve hit that number, any additional votes received are redistributed at a reduced value based on the preferencing on the ballot. I’m not confident I could explain it to you in person.
According to the experts, the system is fairer as no valid vote is “wasted”. It also (theoretically) produces a more representative result by restricting the control of the major parties to dictate a single candidate option to constituents. Don’t want Eric Abetz representing you? No problem — you can prioritise other Liberal candidates instead, still voting for your preferred party without having to support specific individuals.
Despite these theoretical advantages, it’s a more confusing system. There is no “above-the-line” voting option. How-to-vote cards are prohibited at the polls, putting the onus well and truly on the voter to figure out how best to allocate their preferences.
For the system to work as intended, I’d have to be across the individual policy priorities, factional positions and backgrounds of more than 30 candidates. Even I do not have the time for that (and, again, where do I find independently reported information on these people?)
The complex voting system and weak local news coverage results in the kind of fractured government that sparked this early election in the first place. Candidates are competing against their peers in the same party and electorate, which means factional politics and old grudges play a huge role. There is far too much lore to be learned!
It’s not just Tasmanian Labor that’s broken by it; the polls are predicting a hung parliament, with the Liberals unable to beat outright a Labor Party that’s been in administration for 18 months. Minority parties and independents are tipped to feature so heavily that cobbled-together coalitions will be needed to form both government and any meaningful opposition.
I’m not knocking the concept of minority governments, they can be very productive and even progressive. But three of these potential independents were Liberal and Labor MPs as recently as 2023! Why would they be any more cooperative if reelected as indies? As in federal politics, the Greens have little in common with the current version of either major party. The ambitions of the Jacqui Lambie Network are only to hold the balance of power — no unified ideology, for now it’s just a quest for seats.
If I’m feeling like this, I can’t begin to imagine how uninspired and overwhelmed younger voters must be. It’s an impossible task with no pathway to something better. But above all, I’m annoyed — I was supposed to have another 12 months to figure this out.
Do you have any predictions or tips for the Tasmanian election? Will the last Liberal government in the country hang on to power? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
