Used to think he was somewhat likeable but ever since becoming Lord Mayor his ego has gone over his head and he’s just an unfiltered loud mouth these days.
You know the Liberals in WA are desperate when they have to go recruit celebrities like him as ‘faces’ of the party.
The WA Libs will need more than Basil to even try and make any sort of comeback.
I have nothing against Basil. He gets a lot of shit for being WA’s version of Eddie everywhere, and yes I’m sure part of that is that he does like the sound of his own voice, but he’s not a bad person and he does work hard.
Joining a sinking ship seems strange to me though. The WA Libs are useless and he isn’t going to fix or save anything.
Oh but apparently there was poll last year saying that the Libs were favourite to win the next election 54-46 
Sarcasm aside. The WA Coalition are collectively just useless (and funnily enough, the Nationals seem more sensible than the Liberals in that state). With the wipeout they had in 2021 it’s going to take them at least 3 election cycles to even become remotely competitive, bar a Campbell Newman situation like in QLD and Roger Cook is far more popular than Libby Mettam or Shane Love despite what the media likes to admit.
Must have the same advisor as Matthew Guy from Victoria.
You need to cycle a whole generation before the Labor WA party will be booted out. Come back in 30 years. Same over in Victoria.
They could win if they wanted to if they had people with half a brain. Victorian Labor should have been turfed out, pathetic opposition made sure they stayed in place. Much the same in WA.
Steven Marshall handed in his resignation today.
Tassie is going to an(other) early election.
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:
Also another question would be if the Tasmanian electoral commission will run the tally room again, as it is the last tally room in the country.
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.
Election now locked in for March 23rd:
Discuss media coverage here: 2024 Tasmanian State Election - Media Coverage
How does the tally room work in Tasmania? Do they have to rotate the order of names on the board every few minutes?
If this doesnt make sense: Tasmania uses a system called the “Robson Rotation” to alternate the order of the ballot
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.
From the 2021 election:
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.
The ABC building may still have that studio where WIN News was presented from, while 7 Tas still has the old news studio.
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.
Liberal Party announces 35 candidates ahead of Tasmanian election - Pulse Tasmania
