Lara Alexander's Liberal Bass campaign complains of 'complete control' from party in Hobart

Ms Alexander is the chief executive officer of St Vincent de Paul Society Tasmania, but has only been allowed to give one interview with the media since she was announced as a candidate on March 28 - and that was after media strenuously complained to advisers at the announcement.

Since then, Ms Alexander has only been permitted to speak about her upbringing in communist Romania, according to her campaign manager Mark Wells.

Mr Wells - speaking with Ms Alexander's endorsement - said all requests for comment were sent to Liberal HQ in Hobart for approval, but would come back with generic comments for the media that did not allow Ms Alexander to properly express herself.

"The process at the moment is that anything that we want to say, or put out into the public domain, has to be vetted by Hobart," he said.

"And it comes back basically ... not in the voice of the candidate, but in the voice of what the party wants to put out there, which if they just want a field of cookie cutter candidates, that's a good way to do it."

The Examiner requested an interview with Ms Alexander to discuss housing policy, but it was rejected by the Liberal Party. Instead, they offered an opinion-editorial piece to be attributed to her.

Premier Peter Gutwein and high profile cabinet ministers Sarah Courtney and Michael Ferguson are expected to retain their seats in Bass, with the Liberals pushing for a fourth seat for one of their other Bass candidates Ms Alexander, Greg Kieser or Simon Wood.

It could be important for the Liberals to build a larger lower house majority, but Mr Wells said the candidates needed to be able to have more control of their campaigns.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"I think there's an opportunity for four people to be returned in Bass, but the people of Bass need to be able to make a decision about who that fourth person should be," he said.

"They need to know who those candidates are, and how can they do that if they don't have a voice?"

Mr Wells' political campaigning experience goes back over 45 years, but he described the Tasmanian Liberals' approach as the tightest control he'd seen.

"I've worked on campaigns both here and in the UK, and I can say hand on heart that this is the first time I've ever experienced such control over taking away the voice of individual candidates," he said.

Liberal Party state director Stuart Smith said it was normal practice.

"Having dedicated spokespeople is standard campaign practice," he said.

The party did not respond to questions about whether non-incumbent candidates would be given more opportunities to speak to the media.