Tasmanians go to the polls on Saturday, March 23, to elect a new government after Australia’s last remaining Liberal premier, Jeremy Rockliff, called an election a year early.
Tasmania uses the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation. The lower house (of assembly) consists of seven (up from five and down from seven before that!) elected members from each of the five divisions (Bass, Braddon, Denison, Franklin, and Lyons). The upper house (legislative council) comprises of 15 members elected from a single electoral division (who serve terms of six years).
It is difficult to win more than half of the seats in the lower house, Peter Gutwein demonstrated in 2021 when his Liberal party outpolled Labor by 20.5% on primary votes, yet only won a single-seat majority.
With polling indicating a growing cohort of voters disenchanted with the majors, minor parties such as the Jackie Lambie Network are emerging as key players in determining who forms government.
As a part of the Australian Deer Association’s ongoing advocacy work, we have written to the parties on the topics affecting wild deer so that you can make an informed decision on polling day on the below matters:
- Position on retaining our wild fallow deer herd as a quality and sustainable hunting resource.
- Supporting and growing the tradition of recreational / game hunting as a legitimate pursuit for many Tasmanians, our visitors from interstate and overseas.
- Re-establishing access to public land for all hunting and introducing a system (a NSW R Licence-type system) to facilitate access to these areas.
- Position for the continuous support for firearm owners and facilities for shooting sports. Improving the service output and quality of Firearm Service Department.
- Position on continuance of Game Services Tasmania and your thoughts of this department have been made more relevant to Tasmanian game hunters as a source for quality guidance and education on topics such as Quality Game Management, Property-Based Management Plans, ethical hunting, and increasing quality opportunities for hunting on public land.
As their replies are received, we will complete the table below. A traffic light system will grade their responses, with green indicating good, amber in the middle, and red not good. When appropriate, we will also share their replies/policies.
Liberal Party / Letter from Premier Rockliff
As of 8:30 PM on Friday, the ADA had not received a response from the Labor Party, and we cannot assess their stance regarding wild deer and recreational deer hunting.