The parties have managed to develop a shared assumption among voters and the media that the real purpose of the ballot is to elect a government.
The Hare-Clark electoral system, however, guarantees that the Parliament cannot be overlooked entirely.
Tasmania’s system of proportional representation has resulted in non-majority government on average in one out of every three elections since it was adopted in 1907.
Since a political party needs to control a majority of seats in the House of Assembly to be certain of forming a government, our electoral history is replete with post-ballot executive uncertainty.
For some time, Tasmanian opinion polls have suggested no party is likely to secure majority support in its own right in 2018. Consequently, the two major parties are already putting out warnings against the instability of minority government.
While these campaign scare tactics have become fairly predictable as a feature of Tasmanian elections …
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Richard Herr, Mercury
