The Tasmanian parliament’s lower house has passed a vote of no confidence in the Liberal premier, Jeremy Rockliff, setting the stage for the fourth state election in seven years.
The motion – moved by the opposition leader, Dean Winter – was supported by Labor, the Greens and three other crossbenchers. The speaker, Labor’s Michelle O’Byrne, gave a casting vote to pass the motion 18-17 after a marathon two-day debate finished on Thursday afternoon.
Liberal MPs yelled out “weak” as the house divided for the vote, which passed just after 3.40pm.
Rockliff went to Government House on Thursday evening to ask the state’s chief justice and lieutenant governor for an early election.
Speaking to media afterwards, however, he said the state’s parliament would resume on Tuesday to pass supply bills to ensure essential services the government is responsible for were funded before an election was called – as the budget introduced last Thursday had not yet been passed.
He will then meet with the state government to request the election be called.
Speaking in parliament earlier on Thursday, after the vote, Rockliff saidt he was “so disappointed, if not brokenhearted” by the decision, and called it a “a very sad day for Tasmania”.
He retained the support of the Liberal party. He said earlier he planned to ask the acting governor, Christopher Shanahan, to call a fresh election just 15 months after the state last went to the polls.
The governor of Tasmania is now overseas, so Rockliff was due to drive to Government House to meet the lieutenant governor.
Speaking in parliament after the vote, Rockliff acknowledged that there had not always been a “100% Liberal minority government success” but said his party’s agenda had been moved forward by negotiating.
He then took aim at Labor, accusing Winter of “recklessness”.
“What I find most disappointing is the personalisation of the vote, if you like,” he said. “And I’ll be damned if the Labor party is going to choose the leader of the Liberal party that I love.
“At the end of the day, this was just a grievance debate.”
He also issued a clear warning to Winter, saying, “You might get rid of me, mate. But I’ll tell you what: they’re coming for you as well, because you will always be known as a wrecker.”
If an election did take place, he said it would be one “Tasmanians don’t want, and Tasmania cannot afford”.
“This has been a selfish grab for power, which we will fight and we will do our darndest to win.”
Premier since 2022, Rockcliff had earlier conceded the numbers were against him but vowed to “fight to his last breath” and not resign.
After the vote, Winter told media he couldn’t “stand by” while the state’s budget deteriorated.
“I want to bridge the gap between Tasmania and the mainland,” he said. “I want to make sure that this is a state that has the best education facilities possible. I want this to be a state where you can get the healthcare you need anywhere you live.
“That is not what we have.”
Winter, the opposition leader since Labor’s 2024 loss, earlier said Tasmanians wanted to see the end of Rockliff and the Liberals, who have governed under three different premiers since 2014.
“We are ready for an election,” he said, flanked by his caucus outside a substation in Mount Wellington’s foothills, a site chosen to press home arguments against privatisation.
“We will not stand by and let this premier wreck our budget and sell the assets that Tasmanians have built.”
Winter, who brought the no-confidence motion after a budget in deficit and forecasting a debt blowout of several billion dollars, pushed back against Rockliff’s claims he had opportunistically engineered the government’s demise.
“The premier did confidence and supply agreements with the crossbench when he became premier … and it was up to him to hold those agreements together,” he said.
“He couldn’t do it. Those agreements have fallen apart.”
Tasmania went to the polls just 15 months ago, in an election which returned the Liberals to power in minority with just 14 of 35 seats in the lower house.
During the debate, Labor also lashed Rockliff for delays and cost blowouts to the delivery of two new Bass Strait ferries.
Some crossbenchers and the Greens oppose the proposed construction of a $945m stadium in Hobart, a condition of the Tasmania Devils entering the AFL in 2028.
Labor supports the team and a stadium, a position the party reiterated on Wednesday in writing to the AFL.
The Devils fear an early election would delay the project and put the club’s licence at risk.
The Greens had dangled the prospect of forming a minority government with Labor, a prospect Winter has ruled out.
