Greens vague on first power sharing test

Tasmania's new political dynamics will be tested next month when the nation's
leaders meet to discuss the federal government's planned hospital funding takeover.
The clear winners in Saturday's state election were the Greens, who now hold the
balance of power in a hung parliament.
But it will be either Liberal leader Will Hodgman or the Labor incumbent David
Bartlett who will go to the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG), which has been
pushed back a week to April 19.
Two state seats remain in doubt, and it could take weeks before they are decided.
On Sunday, Greens leader Nick McKim didn't have a plan in mind about what role his
party might have in trying to influence which of the two major party leaders attends
COAG.
Mr McKim was asked by a reporter in Hobart whether he would seek to talk to whoever
is the new premier before COAG and have the Greens' interests represented at the
meeting.
"That depends on what happens over the next few days and next couple of weeks and
I'm not in position to predict that at the moment," he replied.
Mr McKim was specific about the Greens' concerns over Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plan.
"We need to see more detail around whether there will be job losses in the public
sector, particularly amongst health workers...," he said.
The outcome of Saturday's poll is an expected 10-10-5 split of Liberal, Labor and
Greens in the 25-member assembly.
The Greens are still in the race to gain one more seat, that of Denison in Hobart,
which would take them from four to six seats, assuming they hold on to their likely
gain in the northwest seat of Braddon.
The man expected to become Tasmania's next premier, Liberal leader Will Hodgman,
says he'll act in the state's best interest on the federal government's planned
funding takeover of hospitals.
Issues such as reduced GST revenues and the prospect of hospital closures in
regional and rural centres were chief among his concerns about the plan.
"These things are very important here in Tasmania," he told reporters in Hobart on
Sunday.
David Bartlett supports the takeover and had hitched most of Labor's central health
policy platform to it in his election campaign.
The incumbent premier said it would be days before he knew whether he had lost office.
"Anything can happen in a couple of electorates, for those fifth seats, and we'll
wait patiently," he told reporters in Hobart
On Saturday night, Mr Hodgman laid claim to being the premier of the state's hung
parliament after Labor suffered a general 12 per cent swing against it on
Saturday's.
The Liberals have polled more votes overall than Labor and in the event of a tie, it
has been agreed he would become premier.