Both major parties failed to present a genuine alternative to the worsening housing, healthcare and ecological destruction crises. Tasmanians saw through the political spin and with neither party achieving a majority, it’s clear they have said, again they want real solutions not hollow promises.
Both major parties remain tethered to market logic and privatisation as the “answers” to systemic problems. But any reform which does not address the structural conditions is doomed to fail.
Now, there are more than 8200 on the social housing wait list; the average wait time is of 82 weeks. The state fell far short of its own construction targets, delivering just 706 homes from a goal of 1306 in the last quarter. Rent has surged by more than 40% since 2020, leaving 76.8% of people experiencing rental stress. This places Tasmanian as being among the highest rates in the country.
Yet, both Labor and the Liberals keep pushing the same market-driven solutions which enable housing shortages; developer subsidies, first-home buyer grants and private rental incentives.
The state also has still has some of the weakest renter protections in the country, with limited caps on rent increases, insecure tenancy agreements and few penalties for landlords placing properties in to the short-stay market.
While both parties cling to neoliberal dogma, Tasmanians sleep in tents, cars and overcrowded houses.
The housing crisis is not inevitable, nor is it a simple matter of supply and demand. It is the result of prioritising developers and investors over people’s rights.
Despite 69% opposing the white elephant Macquarie Point stadium project Labor and the Liberals have said it is non-negotiable.
When hospitals are understaffed, a housing affordability crisis, and cost-of-living pressures are pushing families into poverty, the major parties are spending taxpayer dollars on a stadium that most do not want.
Under pressure, the Liberals did make some small environmental concessions in the lead-up to the election; the temporary protection of 39,000 hectares of native forest from logging, as well as a pause on the expansion of the salmon industry for a review.
However, these temporary measures do not go far enough. They were used by the Liberals to attract more votes. Make no mistake the election results lock the state into deeper ecological destruction. The native forest logging industry is heavily publicly-subsidised, despite its depreciation in value, and the polluting salmon industry continues to receive government protection.
Protecting these industries is not about jobs — which make up less than 1% of the state’s workforce — but about preserving profits for a handful of corporations at enormous public and ecological cost.
Most Tasmanians want the environment protected, public housing expanded, universal healthcare and a quality, low-cost public transport system including buses, ferries and passenger rail.
These are some of the measures Socialist Alliance has advanced and is campaigning for. Business-as-usual neoliberalism has failed.
Socialist Alliance says a mass expansion of public housing, investment in public healthcare and a rapid transition away from destructive industries would advance people and the planet’s well-being. We call on Tasmanian Labor, the Greens and the progressive cross bench MPs to reject deals to prop up the Liberal minority government and to instead use their positions to demand real structural change that serves the people.
We need a political perspective that transcends the simplistic “yes” or “no” approach that plagues politics in this state. Addressing urgent social and ecological problems can be done if we put people’s needs before profit.
[Solomon Doyle is a member of Socialist Alliance. lutruwita Socialist Alliance urges you to join us and help in our bid to register with the Tasmanian Electoral Commission. You can help by either joining here, direct messaging lutruwita Socialist Alliance or calling Matt on 0484 860 255.]