Former Tasmanian premier Tony Rundle passed away over the weekend. Ellen Coulter on ABC News has reflected on the Liberal minority government he led from 1996 to 1998.  

After the Port Arthur massacre, “with then-prime minister John Howard, Mr Rundle’s government led the push for tighter gun laws and was instrumental in securing the 1996 National Firearms Agreement.” 

“Homosexual activity was finally decriminalised in Tasmania in 1997, after Mr Rundle granted the Liberals a free vote, and under his leadership in 1997, Tasmania became the first state to make a public apology to the Stolen Generations.” 

Rundle governed with the support of the Tasmanian Greens on the crossbench. A Liberal–Greens minority government is unusual, but minority governments in general are not. Australia has had almost 20 minority governments over the last 20 years, and most states and territories have had at least one in that time.  

In her memoir, former Greens leader Christine Milne recalls that Rundle was “[t]rue to his word” on negotiations over the decriminalisation of homosexuality. The Tasmanian parliament’s apology to the stolen generations was “one of the most dignified and significant” days of her political life. 

This power sharing parliament ended unhappily, with the major parties teaming up to reduce the number of seats in the Tasmanian Parliament and minimise the Greens as a parliamentary force.  

But parliaments should be judged by the reforms they are able to facilitate as much as the manner in which they end. As Milne points out, her political relationship with Rundle was, until the end of the parliamentary term, one of “trust”.