‘There is nothing to differentiate Labor and Liberal in Tasmania except the artificial battle for personal power.’

Um…you don’t say. Just the same as with every other state!

As I said on another forum in answer to this article:
Maybe it’s time for a 4th party to be formed. One with basic decent middle of the road policies that will give the ignored constituents a place in the political scene. I have had it remarked to me recently, that “I would sooner make my vote informal than have the preferences go to either the Libs or the Labs, both totally against what I stand for”.
A 4th party or a lose coalition of independents would at least provide a place for preferences away from the Liblabs.

As Ludwig said.

There is also no difference between Federal Labor and Federal Liberal.

Today a new personal benchmark has been set:

I can agree with both Ludwig AND Leigh in the one thread.

However, I suspect our reasons may well be different.

Sarnian, we really madly deeply need an alternative.

As we saw in WA the Greens are likely to pick up more lower house seats with every election. Perhaps at the State level Greens are more pragmatic than their Federal counterparts who appear to live in a dream world. It would be nice to have a political alternative who are neither ecological vandals nor dreamers.

To illustrate my point I've been taken aback by the cutting down of those magnificent swamp gums at Camp Florentine. Whether the protesters were dirty hippies or not thousands of local, interstate and foreign tourists called in there to admire the trees. It became part of a tourist drive taking in Lake Pedder. The next 400 years will not see a repeat of the cool, damp, shady conditions those trees need to grow so large. Now they are low value wood chips and floor boards when they had been a major tourist attraction. Yet this was done with the full approval of Premier Bartlett. Therefore I cannot vote for Bartlett or his Liberal clones.

Taswegian, I am with you in this. If we get Libs instead of labs, will it make any difference at all, the cozy relationship with Big Business will continue on as usual. I would like to see the greens prevail but they seem unable to convince the thinking voter to actually give them a chance.