Rebecca White has resigned as the leader of the Tasmanian Labor Party, days after the party failed to gain enough seats to govern at the state’s election.
On the weekend, neither major party were able to secure enough seats to form a majority government.
White has conceded that Labor’s 10 seats are not enough to form government in the Tasmania’s 35-seat parliament. As counting continues, the Liberals have so far won 13 seats and will most likely need to negotiate with the crossbench, including the Jacqui Lambie Network and independents. Both Labor and the Liberals ruled out negotiating with the Greens, who have won 4 seats.
“I’m very proud of the campaign that we ran this election. But obviously we didn’t make it and I take responsibility for that,” White said on Tuesday, announcing her resignation.
“I’m incredibly proud of the people who have worked beside me, not just throughout this campaign, but of course, over the years that I have been a leader for my party, and I want to thank them for their support.”
White first became Tasmanian Labor leader in 2017. Last weekend’s election marked Labor’s third election loss under her leadership. She said it was time for her to “move on” from the role.
“There’s a great opportunity for whoever steps forward as the next leader of the Labor party to take it to the government,” she said.
“They’ve lost a lot in this election campaign, not just in terms of support across the electorate, but I think credibility too and the Labor party has an opportunity to take it to them and they’re in a good position to take it to the next election.”
White said she will continue to sit in parliament and serve the electorate of Lyons.
“I’ll stay on in parliament, providing support to my colleagues and to whoever the next leader is and I’ll work beside them to make sure we can bring about the change that I know Tasmania deserves to have a Labor government elected. I’ll do everything we can to support that outcome.”
The final make up of the Tasmanian election may not be known for a number of weeks as counting continues.