The Labor Parliamentary team showed up in force today to help solidify Dean Winter’s bid to topple Premier Rockliff.

The press conference was held at a TasNetworks substation. Winter stood in a commanding position with his colleagues behind him in a triangular formation. Feet apart, jaws clenched. Labor asserted its readiness to govern in word and stature. At the same time, the choice of location made clear that Labor sought to defend public assets from the threat of privatisation by the Rockliff Government.

In addition to the symbolism and show of support, it was an opportunity for Winter to flesh out the motivation for his bid to topple the Rockliff Government. No, this wasn’t a mean-spirited power grab. Nor was this an accident—the stunt of a motion of no confidence that accidentally won support from parliamentarians, as we reported yesterday. Then there was the unceremonious ejection of Winter and his colleague Josh Willie from the Yes Team, the main cheerleaders for the stadium. The organisers referred to Winter’s “antics” as the reason for the duo’s defenestration.

Winter’s message today was that he was simply compelled: “I can’t stand idly by and let this premier ruin Tasmania’s Budget. Tasmanians don’t want a Premier who will put our future on the credit card. I can’t let this government rack up $11 billion of debt.

It was hard to square the prospect of this yawning debt with Labor’s support for the proposed stadium, which Winter said was unwavering: “We support the Premier’s stadium,” he reiterated.

It was also an opportunity to heap even more opprobrium on the unfortunate Premier. Not only had he handed down a clanger of a Budget, his nube Treasurer Guy Barnett pitching the state deeper into debt with no realistic way out.

But Rockliff, adding electoral insult to the state’s already injured finances, had the temerity to threaten to call an election. The (current) Premier told the media this morning that if the motion is passed, he will call an election.

It was a tacit and possibly weak threat to Tasmanian Labor that voters won’t appreciate yet another election. It was a threat straight from the “Sack me or I resign!” last-chance saloon

The election threat was seized on by Winter, who said that the decision to go to the Governor’s House later today to dissolve Parliament was Rockliff’s alone. He also took the opportunity to say that he wouldn’t do a deal with the Greens, consistent with standard Labor rhetoric of recent years. But with Winter ruling out any deals, this was a Mexican standoff, making an election inevitable.

If a state election is called, it will be the second in 14 months and this administration will be Tasmania’s second shortest.

BREAKING: No-Confidence motion passed 18-17 on the casting vote of Speaker Michelle O’Byrne. House of Assembly election now almost certain.