Both Labor and the Liberals are out of the blocks in election mode with full-on campaigns promising they will - under no circumstances- enter into any coalition arrangements after the upcoming election.
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This would seem counter-intuitive to all the evidence pointing to no single party having a majority in the new 35-seat parliament. So what is going on?
Over the past 20 years, both parties have run similar campaigns before elections, but both have entered into coalition arrangements with the Greens afterwards to form governments.
Most recently, with Labor under the David Bartlett/Lara Giddings governments and under the Tony Rundle government with the Liberals.
Short memories, indeed.
They do have some good reasons for trying to distance themselves from coalition arrangements. Firstly, the recent coalitions have ended in tears. Also, voters punished the parties at the next election (the Liberals lost government after the Rundle coalition, and Labor lost government after the Bartlett/Giddings coalition).
So, both parties see any whiff of entertaining coalitions as a form of political self-destruction.
But there is a tone of arrogance in taking this zero-sum game approach.
Essentially, the Liberals and Labor are both saying that irrespective of what Tasmanian voters want, they will refuse to try and make a workable Parliament if there is no clear majority.
Instead of engaging in this type of brinkmanship behaviour - which Labor and the Liberals accuse others of - it would be very civil of them to start talking to Tasmanian voters about how they could approach coalition arrangements.
A bit like nationally, the Liberals and the Country Parties sorted out many years ago - a coalition that generally has worked well, even with a few Barnaby Joyce ups and downs.
Coalition arrangements are increasingly the norm nationally and globally.
There is no evidence overall of them being any better or worse than single-party majority governments.
Indeed, where there is a diversity of values and interests at play (as there now is in Tasmania), coalitions often have a better record of representing more of the people more of the time. And a better record of holding big parties to account.
The Liberals and Labor seem caught in a time warp of 'us vs them' rather than 'we' collectively as Tasmanians.
Professor David Adams - University of Tasmania
Political arrogance from Labor and the Liberals?
14
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13.02.2024
Both Labor and the Liberals are out of the blocks in election mode with full-on campaigns promising they will - under no circumstances- enter into any coalition arrangements after the upcoming election.
$0/
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Login or signup to continue reading
This would seem counter-intuitive to all the evidence pointing to no single party having a majority in the new 35-seat parliament. So what is going on?
Over the past 20 years, both parties have run similar campaigns before elections, but both have entered into coalition arrangements with the Greens afterwards to form governments.
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