Elections are held for Tasmania’s upper house every year, usually in May. I’ve now finished my guide to the three races to be contested this year. Read the guide here.
Two to three seats are contested each year, with all 15 up for election over a six year cycle. So this year’s seats are those contested in 2019.
As usual, these seats are all a bit different. One seat is in the north-west of the state, while the other two are in the Hobart area.
Montgomery covers Burnie and other areas in the north-west. The sitting Liberal MLC is retiring, and her son is running as an independent against a former senator running for the Liberal Party.
Nelson covers the southern fringe of Hobart. Sitting left-leaning independent MLC Meg Webb is running for a second term after winning by a 9.3% margin over the Liberal Party in 2019.
Pembroke covers the eastern shore of the Derwent and has been Labor-held since 2017. The seat is as close as Tasmania’s upper house gets to a classic major party contest, but Labor has won by sizeable margins in 2019 and a 2022 by-election. Luke Edmunds is running for re-election after finishing the last three years of his predecessor’s term.
You would normally expect this election to be held on May 3, but the Tasmanian Electoral Commission website is a bit vague about timing. I believe the election would need to be moved if the federal election is to be held on that day, but these elections will be held this year.
