The Parliament of Tasmania has been hung!

Great news! The Parliament of Tasmania has been hung!

Oh wait…

*cough*

That is, “Tasmania is headed for a hung Parliament, with the latest seat predictions saying 10 Labor, 10 Liberal and five to the Greens.”

Further, “The Premier, David Bartlett, has not yet conceded defeat but says the 12 per cent swing against Labor is a clear rebuke. It was his first election as leader and he says Labor’s performance still comes down to him. “[I take] responsibility for this result,” he said. “The electorate has sent Labor a message.”

Yeah: f*ck off.

Finally, “The Greens recorded a record 21 per cent of the vote and will hold the balance of power. Leader Nick McKim is celebrating the party’s strongest ever vote. “This is a historic result for the Greens,” he said. “A great weight has lifted off Tasmanians’ shoulders.”

Well, not quite, but it looks like interesting times for The Gunnerment.

In South Australia, meanwhile, it seems Mike Rann The Pants Man is back.

*yawn*

More importantly, with the benefit of the donkey vote, Communist Bob Briton has secured 517 votes (3.1%) in the race for a seat in Lee, and by doing so come fifth in a field of seven, narrowly losing the popularity contest to Family First but beating two (other) Independents.

The Communist Party of Australia (SA) tweets:

3.1 percent vote for Communist Party in seat of Lee a top result. Thanks to all who voted for Bob and offered support and encouragement!

The ALP are preferencing us last. Their opportunism & capitalist ideology is in serious conflict with working class values. They’re a joke!

But still quite a popular one, it seems.

Note that “In his four years in Parliament, [former member for Lee Joe] Rossi attracted more headlines than is normal for a little known backbencher, producing ideas for innovative schemes such as sterilising unmarried mothers after their third child, or introducing a modern version of poor houses for welfare recipients.”

Awesome!

Sadly, Rossi’s innovative thinking has, like Communism, again been repudiated by the voters of Lee.

So much for the Communist Alliance. As for the Socialist Alliance, it stood two candidates in the Tasmanian State election, and there’s good news and there’s bad news. In Denison, Melanie Barnes got 410 votes or 0.7%, an improvement of 0.3% on the Alliance’s last tilt; in Franklin, however, Jennie Forward received just 250 votes, or 0.4% of the total. In other words, Barnes and Forward have at this stage proven to be the least popular of the 17 candidates in each of their respective contests.

See also : Another SA is Possible, Vote 1 Communist // Windisch for Altona (February 3, 2010) | Windisch (not) for Altona (February 17, 2010).