Incumbent MLC
Rob Valentine (Independent), since 2012.
Geography
Southern Tasmania. Hobart covers the centre of the Hobart urban area, including the suburbs of Hobart, North Hobart, South Hobart, Battery Point, New Town, Mount Stuart and part of Lenah Valley.
History
Hobart has existed continuously since the first Legislative Council election in 1856, with the exception of the 1999-2008 period when it was renamed Wellington. Labor has dominated Hobart for most of its recent history. The part held the seat for thirty years from 1952 to 1982, and again from 1994 until 2012.
Independent MP Hank Petrusma won the seat off Labor in 1982, and was re-elected in 1988 before leaving the upper house in 1992 in an unsuccessful attempt to win a seat in the House of Assembly for the Advance Tasmania minor party. His upper house seat was won by independent Jean Moore in the 1992 by-election.
Moore lost to Labor’s Doug Parkinson in 1994.
The seat of Hobart was renamed as Wellington in 1999, and Parkinson was re-elected in the renamed seat in 2000 and 2006. The district became Hobart again in 2009, and Parkinson retired in 2012.
Independent Rob Valentine, a former lord mayor of Hobart, won the seat in 2012 with 37% of the primary vote. The Greens came second, and Labor came third.
Valentine was re-elected in 2018 with a swing towards him, winning 61% after preferences.
Candidates
Sitting independent MLC Rob Valentine is not running for re-election.
- Charlie Burton (Independent)
- Sam Campbell (Independent)
- Michael Haynes (Independent)
- John Kamara (Labor)
- John Kelly (Independent)
- Cassy O’Connor (Greens)
- Stefan Vogel (Independent)
Assessment
This is an open race with Valentine’s retirement, but the winner will probably be someone of the centre-left, either Labor, Greens or another progressive independent. Cassy O’Connor’s candidacy for the seat is probably the strongest Greens attempt to win an upper house seat in the party’s history and could well see them win in their strongest part of the state.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| Rob Valentine | Independent | 8,034 | 43.9 |
| Richard Griggs | Independent | 4,691 | 25.6 |
| Simon Behrakis | Liberal | 3,485 | 19.0 |
| Chris Simcox | Animal Justice | 1,319 | 7.2 |
| Alan Barnett | Tasmanians 4 Tasmania | 413 | 2.3 |
| Brendon Hext | Shooters, Fishers and Farmers | 353 | 1.9 |
| Informal | 553 | 2.9 |
2018 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| Rob Valentine | Independent | 11,032 | 61.0 |
| Richard Griggs | Independent | 7,051 | 39.0 |
Polling places in Hobart have been split into three parts: east, north and south. The north makes up a majority of election-day votes.
Valentine easily topped the primary vote in all three areas, ranging from 40.6% in the east to 45.3% in the north.
Independent candidate Richard Griggs did best in the south, while the Liberal Party did best in the east.
| Voter group | Valentine | Griggs % | LIB % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 45.3 | 24.4 | 18.7 | 5,841 | 31.9 |
| South | 43.1 | 29.9 | 15.3 | 4,859 | 26.6 |
| East | 40.6 | 28.3 | 20.1 | 3,170 | 17.3 |
| Pre-poll | 46.4 | 22.5 | 21.6 | 2,440 | 13.3 |
| Other votes | 43.9 | 18.6 | 24.6 | 1,985 | 10.8 |
Election results in Hobart at the 2018 Legislative Council election
Toggle between primary votes for independent candidates Rob Valentine and Richard Griggs, and Liberal candidate Simon Behrakis.
Ben,
You could update your material for Charlie Burton. His material is authorized by Andrew Wilkie. Which is quite interesting.
What do you suggest I update?
@Ben Raue I think he’s talking about his website:
https://charlieburton.com.au/
At the bottom it says “Authorised by Andrew Wilkie MP” then gives his office address.
Yep I’ve linked to that website.
O’Connor is definitely making the top 2 here and I think it’s more likely than not that she wins the seat. Burton feels like the candidate most similar to Valentine and has been campaigning for a while and has a similar background to Meg Webb MLC for Nelson. I am thinking either he or Labor’s candidate Kamara will be in the top 2 with O’Connor. Kelly will probably poll something between 15-20% and the others will do well if they can individually break 5%.