Tasmania Is Heading To An Early Election, Here’s Why You Should Care

It’s more than a year earlier than expected, but Tasmanians will head to the polls on March 23.

The state, which is Australia’s last Liberal government, were told on Wednesday by premier Jeremy Rockliff of the decision.

Listen to the episode of The Briefing here:

It comes amid claims the parliament has become unworkable after two former Liberal MPs ditched the party and won’t agree to pass legislation.

On this episode of The Briefing, Tessa Randello from the Listnr newsroom joins Bension Siebert to discuss how the party in power for the last 10 years ended up in a minority and the impact this result could have on the rest of the country.

Randello breaks down how the state has ended up heading to the polls early, saying it wasn’t something “out of the blue”.

“Liberal members Laura Alexander and John Tucker defected from the Liberal Party to become independent members. And that’s over wanting some more information and some more clarity on a couple of big issues that were happening,” Randello said.

“That did throw the government into a minority, so they are having to work with the opposition, the Greens, and the independents to try and get anything they want through Parliament at the moment.

“Most recently, the premier Jeremy Rockcliff has asked those two independent members for a little bit more support wanting them to vote for all Liberal things that are coming through the Parliament at the moment. They said no and so he has said we can’t work like this.”