The Tasmanian Liberal Government is committed to restoring the size of Parliament from 25 to 35 seats in the House of Assembly, with a draft Bill now open for public comment.
The Bill will restore the House of Assembly to five seven-member electorates, which will come into effect at the next State election in 2025.
As per the advice from the Tasmanian Electoral Commissioner released earlier this month, this is clearly the simplest and most cost-effective method that would involve minimal legislative and administrative changes.
As I have said previously, while this move may not necessarily be popular – it is the right thing to do, and when things need fixing, we need to have the courage to fix them.
The consultation period will run for four weeks, and I encourage everyone interested to jump online, view the draft Bill, and have their say before submissions close on September 28 2022.
Following the consultation period, we will carefully consider the submissions received, and it remains our intention to table legislation before the end of the year.
The Bill can be viewed at https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/expansion-of-parliament-bill.
