logo
Small band of independents offer Liberals and Labor a path to power in Tasmania

Small band of independents offer Liberals and Labor a path to power in Tasmania

The Guardian3 days ago
The independents who hold Tasmania's political future in their hands have indicated they could support a premier from either major party.
The incumbent Liberals claimed 14 seats at Saturday's snap election, ahead of Labor on nine.
But the result leaves both parties short of the 18-seat mark required for majority government.
The Liberal leader, Jeremy Rockliff, has begun courting crossbench support in his bid to return as premier, while Labor's Dean Winter has left the door ajar to governing with the five-seat Greens plus independents.
It could take more than a week for three in-doubt seats to be confirmed via preferences and any minority agreements might not be arranged until after the numbers are settled.
Rockliff has said he would go to the governor after the count finished to ask for his government to be recommissioned.
'I do have a mandate, given we've got the largest number of seats,' he told reporters on Monday.
'For Dean Winter to govern, he'll need to do a deal with the Greens for which he does not have a mandate from the Tasmanian people.'
Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email
Rockliff said he has had good conversations with all members of the crossbench and would have more talks in the next week or two.
Winter, who has also reached out to the independents, has said he would not do a deal with the Greens to govern but would accept their votes of confidence and supply.
There are three re-elected independents – Kristie Johnston, Craig Garland and David O'Byrne – while Peter George has been voted in for the first time.
One of the undecided seats could go to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, expanding the crossbench.
Johnston, Garland and George are opposed to the Liberal- and Labor-backed $945m AFL stadium.
Garland and George also oppose commercial salmon farming, an industry supported by the two major parties.
Garland, who scraped into parliament at the 2024 election, more than doubled his first-preference vote.
Sign up to Breaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
He said he was prepared to back a Liberal or Labor premier but did not indicate whether he would seek any policy concessions.
'We're just waiting for the dust to settle and see where the numbers end up,' he said.
'There are going to be some interesting conversations, put it that way.'
George does not plan to sign any formal agreements and said he was open to Rockliff or Winter as premier.
'Let's hear what they have to say and let's hear what their plans are for rebuilding Tasmania's future,' he told the ABC.
Johnston, who did not sign a formal agreement with the previous minority Liberal government, has indicated she would take the same approach and consider issues on merit.
O'Byrne, a former Labor leader and stadium supporter, is also open to Rockliff or Winter as premier, noting all MPs needed to collaborate.
'It's not about going in with a shopping list of demands … that will be problematic,' he said.
Rockliff's proclaimed mandate 'wasn't clear cut' and it was about who could preside over a functioning parliament, O'Byrne said.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Justice department forms ‘strike force' to investigate Obama over 2016 election
Justice department forms ‘strike force' to investigate Obama over 2016 election

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Justice department forms ‘strike force' to investigate Obama over 2016 election

The US justice department has formed a 'strike force' to investigate claims that the Obama administration carried out a 'treasonous conspiracy' by using false intelligence to suggest Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump. Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, announced the new force's formation after the release of a trove of declassified documents from Barack Obama's national security team by the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. On Thursday, two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, both members of the judiciary committee, called on Bondi to appoint a special counsel into what they called 'an unprecedented and clear abuse of power' by Obama's administration. 'For the good of the country, we urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the US national security apparatus for a political outcome,' the senators said in a staement. Gabbard has alleged that Obama and his senior officials concocted a 'years long coup' against Trump – manifested in a special counsel investigation and FBI inquiries – by 'manufacturing' intelligence in the weeks after Trump's 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton that was meant to show collusion between his campaign and Russia. She has recommended that criminal charges be pressed, including against Obama embraced her argument and has said Gabbard's findings reveal 'irrefutable proof' of treason. Bondi set the scene for a justice department investigation after Gabbard presented what she claimed was evidence of a crime at a White House news conference on Wednesday. 'The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people. We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice,' Bondi said in a statement. Fox News cited a source close to Bondi's strike force as saying no serious lead is off the table. However, any moves to prosecute Obama are likely to be stymied by last year's US supreme court ruling granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for acts committed in the course of their presidential duties. The ruling was widely viewed as favoring Trump, who has faced criminal investigations for acts committed in his first presidency – including the retention of classified documents. Ironically, it may now form an obstacle to Trump's stated desire to pursue 'retribution' against his political opponents. Obama's office issued a rare statement on Tuesday, calling the allegations 'outrageous' and 'ridiculous'. Several others named in Gabbard's document could be targeted. They include James Clapper, her predecessor as director of national intelligence, John Brennan, the former CIA director, James Comey, who was FBI director until he was fired by Trump, Comey's former deputy Andrew McCabe, ex-national security adviser Susan Rice, John Kerry, the former secretary of state, and Loretta Lynch, the then attorney general. Brennan has already been the subject of a criminal referral by the current CIA director, John Ratcliffe. Kash Patel, the FBI director, has opened a criminal investigation into Brennan and Comey, according to Fox News, although its scope is unclear. During his first presidency, Trump publicly accepted the FBI's findings that Russia had sought to interfere in the 2016 race, although he also publicly accepted Putin's denials of the US intelligence community conclusions at a 2018 summit in Helsinki. An 1,000-page Senate intelligence committee report in 2020 also found that Russia had intervened on Trump's behalf, noting that Trump's campaign chair had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer. But in Wednesday's White House appearance, Gabbard unveiled the declassification of a 2020 report from the House of Representatives' intelligence committee which she said showed that the goal of Russian meddling was to undermine faith in the US electoral process rather than to help Trump. The report found that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, did not plan to leak the most damaging material about Clinton until after the election, Gabbard said. These included revelations of 'possible criminal acts' and emails from a hacking of the Democratic national committee (DNC) showing that she suffered from 'psycho-emotional problems', and 'uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness'. She was also supposedly on a daily regimen of 'heavy tranquilizers'. Gabbard also alleges that an intelligence community assessment of Putin's efforts deliberately excluded 'significant' intelligence that contradicted the key findings of Russia's purported preference for Trump. Clinton has previously suggested that Gabbard – a former Democrat member of Congress – was being 'groomed' by Russia as a possible presidential candidate. Gabbard, who has no prior intelligence experience, has also been criticized for repeating Kremlin talking points, including after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Her report appears to misrepresent aspects of the intelligence agencies' assessments of Russia's meddling in the 2016 race. The assessment found that Russia did not conduct cyber-attacks against election infrastructure to change vote tallies, but hacked and leaked documents from the DNC to damage Clinton's campaign – activity that Trump publicly encouraged at the time. While Obama's national security officials have remained silent on the matter, some intelligence veterans have criticized Gabbard's effort. 'The Trump Admin's politicization of the 'intelligence community' is very troubling. Every admin wishes they could do it, and several succeed, but this cohort is off to a flying start,' Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA analyst and national intelligence officer, wrote in an email. 'It's not an entirely new trick – books have been cooked for decades – but it's now institutionalized and, as Tulsi's behavior shows, encouraged.'

Glasgow councillor seeks to block 'deportation' march
Glasgow councillor seeks to block 'deportation' march

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

Glasgow councillor seeks to block 'deportation' march

Greens councillor Dan Hutchison wrote to Glasgow City Council's chief executive, Suzanne Millar, and Director of Legal and Administration, Mairi Millar, to ask that an order is made to stop the march on the grounds of protecting public safety and order. 'I believe the actions and words of the organisers are an incitement to violence and a risk to public safety and order on our streets', Hutchison said. READ MORE: World's tallest cinema in Scottish city 'at risk of closure' 'Ukip use phrases like 'these streets are our streets' and 'we will protect ourselves'. Well, they aren't their streets, they belong to the people of Glasgow. And we don't want fascists calling for our friends and neighbours to be deported.' The party's newest leader, Nick Tenconi, organised what the party billed as a 'mass deportations tour' in cities across the UK, including Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and London. Campaign group Stand Up To Racism have organised a counter-protest in response, with a march planned through several city centre streets such as West Nile Street, George Square North and South, High Street and Nelson Mandela Place. The group re-issued a letter of complaint to Glasgow City Council on Thursday after reportedly being told by officials that 'there wasn't clear evidence' that the Ukip march posed a risk to public safety. READ MORE: Safety has become the defining instinct of Scottish politics After referencing evidence of the party's affiliation with far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and a video of Tenconi saying 'these streets are our streets' outside of a home burnt out during the anti-migrant riots in Ballymena, the letter states: 'This is the politics of the people who have been given permission to march through Glasgow on July 26 as part of a 'mass deportation' tour. 'They chant the same racist and Islamophobic hatred that led to the far-right riots last year and we, the co-signers of this letter, urge Glasgow City Council to withdraw the permission to let a fascist-led organisation to march through the streets of Glasgow.'

Hulk Hogan rips off his shirt at RNC in support of Trump in resurfaced clip after WWE star's sudden death
Hulk Hogan rips off his shirt at RNC in support of Trump in resurfaced clip after WWE star's sudden death

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

Hulk Hogan rips off his shirt at RNC in support of Trump in resurfaced clip after WWE star's sudden death

Former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan famously ripped off his shirt in support of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention last summer, in a resurfaced clip following his death. Hogan spoke at the RNC on behalf of Trump as part of his re-election campaign. The WWE legend's death was announced by TMZ on Thursday (24 July). He was 71. Medics were reportedly called to Hogan's Clearwater, Florida, home Thursday morning. In May, a spokesperson for the retired wrestling legend, 71, told TMZ that he had undergone 'a little fusion procedure' on his neck.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store