TASMANIA needs another four years of minority government to avoid returning to the ``dark old days of division and conflict'', Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim said yesterday.
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Mr McKim told the party's state conference in Hobart that he would be campaigning hard to win a second consecutive term holding the balance of power.
The party has vowed to soften its anti-mining image, endorsing the need to develop a state-based mining policy and stressing that it supports mining in some limited circumstances.
Six months from the next state election, the party is down in state polls and reeling from a dive in its federal primary vote, but Mr McKim predicted that it would hold its five seats. He warned voters that majority governments were unstable and divisive and said the party would be talking up the achievements of the past 3 1/2 years.
Mr McKim said the Greens would negotiate with either Labor or the Liberals if the 2014 election delivered a hung Parliament.
Pro-logging protesters clashed with Greens members arriving for the conference.
Lyons MHA Tim Morris defended the Greens' policies as specialty timber industry representative George Harris blamed them for destroying the industry.
