The parliament will return to 35 seats after being reduced to 25 seats at the 1998 election. Each of the five seats will now return seven representatives under the Hare-Clark preferential voting system.
I think this will be a fascinating election night. I highly doubt either the Liberals or Labor will win a majority, the Greens should gain seats but what votes the independents and others like Jacqui Lambie Network get and where their preferences flow could make for a very interesting hung parliament.
Yes, it’s definitely going to be an interesting one and despite Rebecca White and Labor saying they won’t do deals - there are going to have be deals done. I can’t see either party getting a majority.
JLN seems to actually be getting quite a bit more support than I expected and I can see them potentially picking up a couple of extra seats and there’s still quite a lot of anti-Green sentiment around after the last Labor-Green government in the early 2010’s so they could be where many of the votes head for those not wanting the two majors.
Lots of other interesting little battles too - like John Tucker if he chooses to nominate again and go as an independent and Lara Tucker as well in the same way. Down south, David O’Byrne running as an independent after being kicked out of the Labor party is going to cost Labor a lot of votes when they head his way I reckon so that’s a seat they would have had but have lost.
Definitely going to be a big few weeks and very interesting to try and predict! The stadium issue is an absolute major issue for many too with many pro and against and choosing to vote purely on that one which is interesting.
Only two people that I think would be excited by another early election are:
Jacqui Lambie - Has the ability to capitalise on both the Liberals instability, and the previous Labor-Green’s Government.
Antony Green - Gets to cover 2 state elections, 2 territory elections, a couple of state and federal by-elections, and the US election, within one year
Geez I hope so because I’ve just worked out we’re in Hobart for my wife’s birthday on the 23rd… Guess I could take her out for a nice meal at the casino to celebrate and then go watch the tally room!
The tally rooms were always an exciting place, although they met their demise partially because the data became available online, and the tally room basically became a backdrop for TV coverage, meaning that networks had more stable coverage in studios (In 2010 the ABC lost connection to the election data during it’s Victorian election broadcast in the tally room).
They also fell in decline in the states/territories because in some states only the ABC made use of them for coverage (In SA, from about 1997 onwards, the tally room was actually held at the ABC in the same studio where they still do the state elections from).
Still, hopefully one day they will make a comeback, as they were a special place where all could gather to see the results.
IIRC they display the data on several screens, with tables for the media in front, then seats for the public, and at the back are usually the ABC crew, and Seven Tasmania. I can’t remember if it rotated through the seats, but I feel like all of the data was displayed at once across all the screens. Keeping in mind that Tasmania has only 5 seats, with seven MP’s to be elected to each seat, plus the upper house.
ATM, there is no mention of the tally room on the TAS electoral commission website, however, due to the early election they are probably trying to quickly arrange things if they are going to run it.
The tally room definitely adds atmosphere to the coverage. It would be interesting to see how both the ABC and 7 Tas would go covering the night presumably from their news studios if there wasn’t the tally room.
Both have the space to do so but creating a whole set for a six hour broadcast would be costly as opposed to either doing it from the existing news sets or from a desk in the tally room.
The ABC seem to simply move the desks and background objects, as well as the touchscreen, around between states. Also 7 Tas probably have the same tally room set in storage, so that can be wheeled out. Alternatively the ABC could also do an OB from Parliament House or somewhere else like they did for NT in 2016, and ACT in 2020.
(mods feel free to move this to the election coverage thread if more appropriate)
The Victorian Government today announced changes to electoral structures of 39 local councils across the state, ahead of their elections this October. 30 councils will change to a single-member ward structure, except in those cases where the Electoral Representation Advisory Panels have recommended the council have uniform multi-member wards or an unsubdivided structure.
The Tasmanian Liberals have released their full list of candidates for the upcoming state election. A few notable names on there for Tasmanians but in media circles another former Southern Cross News presenter with Rob Fairs throwing his hat in the ring. Unlike his former colleagues Nick Duigan and Jo Palmer who are in the state’s upper house Rob is running for the lower house.
“Tried to put questions to the Premier today about crime in Melbourne only to have a State Goverment media advisor purposely trap myself and my crew in a lift so we couldn’t approach her. Twice I told the advisor to step back. Ignored both times.”
Depends, the media’s treatment of Victorian public figures during the pandemic would be considered harassment or assault in any other setting. If they are still up to those antics I think it’s a good thing to have them put in their place and have boundaries set.
I can definitely understand the Premier not being up to facing media questions today in light of the passing of Senator White, the way her advisors have handled this though appears (based on the version of events presented), heavy handed to say the least however.
