SYDNEY, March 4 (Reuters) - Australia's state of Tasmaniahas returned the conservative Tasmanian Liberals to office witha clear majority in an election fought largely on jobs and pokermachines.
The southern state, an island the size of Sri Lanka with apopulation of 519,000, went to the polls on Saturday withdecisive results apparent before midnight.
The Liberals had held 15 seats in Tasmania's 25-seat Houseof Assembly going into Saturday's election and secured the 13seats they needed for majority government. That was despite theopposition Tasmanian Labor party picking up an extra three seatsafter campaigning strongly against poker machines which it hadvowed to remove from pubs and clubs by 2023.
Premier Will Hodgman of the Tasmanian Liberals had set atarget to reduce Tasmania's unemployment rate to the lowest inthe country by 2022 if re-elected. In his victory speech to thetally room late on Saturday night he said Tasmanians had votedfor "no change".
"I'm so proud of what we have done to kick-start an economyand to create jobs for 10,000 more Tasmanians, for Tasmania'sunemployment rate to be the second lowest of any state in thecountry, and for Tasmanian businesses to be the most confidentof any state in the country. To have got our budget back fromdeficits into surpluses," Hodgman said in the speech.
Opposition leader Rebecca White of Tasmanian Labor said thestate-wide swing back to Labor had put the Liberal government onnotice that they had to make decisions to benefit the people"and not somebody's rich mate".
She criticised the gaming industry's relationship with theLiberals, saying their election campaign was the "mostwell-resourced" in Tasmania's election history.
"It should not be the case that you can buy a seat in theTasmanian parliament."
A controversy over gun laws in Tasmania erupted on the eveof the election, after the contents of a Liberal Party member ofparliament's letter to firearms owners promising to relaxrestrictions became widely known. leaders sought to reassure voters before polls openedthat their stance on gun laws was nothing to be alarmed about. "We are aware of the sensitivities around these issues and weare seeking to find the balance, one that supports our familiesthat work in the rural sector but which is not inconsistent withnational gun laws," Tasmania's premier Will Hodgman said incomments reported by the ABC on Friday.