she had become a member of the Liberal Party and would run for re-election in Clark as a Liberal candidate. Changes in parliamentary composition Since the 2018 election, there were a number of changes within the Tasmanian Parliament that effected the balance of power in the chamber. Candidates and political parties Six political parties contested the election. They were: Animal Justice Party Australian Federation Party Tasmania Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch) The Liberal Party of Australia, Tasmanian Division Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party Tasmania Tasmanian Greens The Jacqui Lambie Network was also a registered party for state elections in Tasmania, but did not contest this election. Campaign Controversies occurred with preselections for both political parties. Factional infighting within the Labor Party resulted in Kingborough mayor Dean Winter being initially denied preselection in the seat of Franklin, with the Labor Left rumoured to be opposed to him becoming a candidate. Former Labor premier David Bartlett labelled Winter an "outstanding candidate", and that by not preselecting him, Labor was effectively conceding the election. Winter was ultimately preselected as the sixth candidate for Franklin, following intervention from the party's national executive. It was also uncovered that one of five Liberal Party candidates for Franklin, Dean Ewington, had labelled climate activist Greta Thunberg a "autistic 15-year-old" who made "hysterical rants", and said that "this whole thing is more like a doomsday cult than a scientific debate at times" when referring to climate change. This was criticised by Autism Tasmania chief executive Donna Blanchard, who said that Ewington needs to "inform themselves more and represent us better", and that his statements demonstrated "poor judgement". Ewington was also discovered to have attended an anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne on 20 March 2021, 8 days before his preselection for the Liberals, and saying on 20 September 2020 that "some of these silly restrictions we're living under at the moment don't make any sense and simply can't be justified". Greens MHA and epidemiologist Rosalie Woodruff called for the removal of Ewington as a Liberal candidate, calling him a "climate denier and COVID denier". Peter Gutwein, in response, said that "We always go through a vetting process for our candidates. They have to provide detailed information as part of the process. That's something that has been undertaken as it would be in previous elections," and a Liberal Party spokesperson told ABC News that "Mr Ewington's views on COVID restrictions are