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Tasmanian State Election 2010

Election Overview

Last updated 13th of March 2010

Well the election looks to be a close run race with one political commentator saying the worst case for the Greens is 3 seats and a hung parliament. Will the Greens choose to work with the Liberals, who they were able to work productively with at some levels in the past, or Labor who ended a previous alliance and are responsible for the current pulp mill travesty.

From a climate change perspective the Greens have been playing it safe, hoping to present a respectable image that will not alienate too many potential voters but not save the planet either.

Labor, a week out from the election, finally has some policies, which was not the case when we first put this page up in early Feb. Sadly, despite the presence of actual policies there is almost nothing on climate change, unacceptable for a party seeking to govern.

The Liberals are even worse than Labor. Their only policy related to the environmental relates to dealing with forest protestors, implying protestors damage equipment and threaten workers and one policy on light rail.

The stand out performer is Socialist Alliance, who have developed the strongest climate policies of any party.

Election Details

• March 20th

Policy Comparison

To view the comprehensive visual policy analysis click here

Voting Recommendations

Note: On your ballot paper you must number at least 5 boxes, starting with the number "1" with your favorite candidate and putting the rest of the candidates in order of preference.

1. Socialist Alliance (Tasmania)
   
2. Tasmanian Greens
   
3. Tasmanian Liberals OR Tasmanian Labor (equal last)
   

Policy and Parties - General Comments

The Socialist Alliance

Following on from their strong climate policies in the 2007 Federal Election, Socialist Alliance is once again leading the field on climate change.

The Socialist Alliance has a comprehensive list of policies, that address the "10 steps for a safe climate" developed by Climate Action Hobart.

The policy highlights include:

• Net Zero Emissions as soon as possible.
• 60% reduction in emissions by 2020
• 100% Renewables by 2020
• End native forest logging
• Free public transport

The Greens

The State based policy, not surprisingly is the strongest of the three elected parties in the State of Tasmania.

• Net zero emissions as soon as possible, 40% emissions reduction by 2020.
• The energy policy is seeking to be 100% renewable by 2050, which is a relatively weak target given that most of their power already comes from hydro.
• While rejecting nuclear and forest biomass energy, the Tasmanian Greens are embracing natural gas for transport.
• The Tasmanian Greens support native forest logging for high value timber, but do oppose native forest logging for wood chips.
• The Tasmanian Greens do not have a specific climate policy, so the goals and targets are drawn from the National Greens existing policy.

From a climate change perspective the policies are disappointing, lacking detail, containing significant omissions, weak goals, and too many calls for inquiries where there should be decisions for strong action. For a party that promotes itself as the leader on social justice and environment, and with four sitting members, the Tasmanian Greens should have done better.

Labor

The lack detail in Tasmania's Labor Party policies makes the Green's policies look like a Doctoral thesis.

The lack of detail (14/1/10) extends to all issues, let alone climate change policy. This makes assessing the Tasmanian Labor policy an impossible task because they simply don't have any policy to assess. This has now changed (13/2/10) however the is effectively an absence of any climate policy on their website, other than a commitment to expand forestry (a negative climate outcome), expand irrigation and buses.

There is also a lack of environment policies in general, with Labor's environmental credentials in tatters, and Labor clearly giving up seeking votes from people who care about environmental issues.

At the "Vote for a Safe Climate Forum" hosted by Climate Action Hobart and Environment Tasmania, Labor announced they would trump the Greens 100% renewables by 2050 policy by getting there 30 years earlier, in 2020, but they also refuse to rule out burning native forests as part of their plan.

We have used Federal Labor policy to assess "goals" and "international" policy.

Liberals

No climate change policy but, unlike Labor, at least the Liberals actually have some policy (14/1/10), including a whole section on accountable Government (which seems to be what Labor is trying to avoid by not having any policy), and the policies even have some detail.

The stand out policies for the Liberals is their support for wind power including small scale wind, free bus travel for students, and a decision to investigate light rail for Hobart.

Other than a specific policy dealing with forest protesters and several more looking at road building, there was not much else relating to climate change.

General Election In formation and Analysis

See the ABC's Election Website

See ABC's election commentator Antony Green's Blog

Links to party websites: