2018 Tasmanian state election

2018 Tasmanian state election

← 2014 3 March 2018 2021 →
All 25 seats in the Tasmanian House of Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
First party Second party Third party   Leader Will Hodgman Rebecca White Cassy O'Connor Party Liberal Labor Greens Leader since 30 March 2006 17 March 2017 12 June 2015 Leader's seat Franklin Lyons Denison Last election 15 seats; 51.22% 7 seats; 27.33% 3 seats; 13.83% Seats won 13 seats 10 seats 2 seats Seat change  2  3  1 Popular vote 168,303 109,264 34,491 Percentage 50.26% 32.63% 10.30% Swing  0.96  5.30  3.53
Results of the election
Premier before election Will Hodgman Liberal Elected Premier Will Hodgman Liberal

The 2018 Tasmanian state election was held on 3 March 2018 to elect all 25 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly.

The four-year incumbent Liberal government, led by Premier Will Hodgman, won a second consecutive term. It defeated the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Rebecca White, and the Greens, led by Cassy O'Connor. The Jacqui Lambie Network also competed in a state election for the first time, though the party did not win any seats and its leader Jacqui Lambie did not stand for election.

The Tasmanian House of Assembly (the lower house) has five divisions with five members each for a total of 25 seats, 13 of which are required for a majority. The divisions correspond in name and boundaries to the five federal electorates for the House of Representatives. The election was conducted by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission using the Hare-Clark electoral system; five candidate are declared elected once each of them reach 16.7% (one-sixth) of the total formal vote during counting.

House of Assembly elections are not tied to the election dates for the Legislative Council (the upper house), which occur in May each year for two or three of the 15 divisions, completing a fixed periodic cycle over six years.

Ultimately, the Liberals suffered a two-seat swing, but were able to hold on to a one-seat majority of 13 seats. It was the first time in 22 years that a Liberal government won a second consecutive term in Tasmania, and the first time since 1986 and only the second time since 1931 that an incumbent conservative government was reelected with an overall majority. It was also the first time a state parliamentary assembly in Australia elected a majority of female members, with thirteen women and twelve men.^[1]