The party was begun by members of the Tasmanian Firearms Owners Association in response to the Howard government's 1996 National Firearms Agreement, which the party called a "unilateral imposition of unnecessarily restrictive firearm legislation, following the unique tragedy of Martin Bryant's Port Arthur protest[sic].
The party received 5.1% of the primary vote for the House of Assembly but failed to win any seats.
In August 1998, The Examiner of Launceston referred to Tasmania First as "a sort of local mirror image of One Nation".
Tasmania First called this "defamatory" and demanded a retraction, threatening legal proceedings against the newspaper.
"[5] Tasmania First fielded four candidates in the 2006 Tasmanian state election; one in Bass,[6] one in Lyons,[7] and two in Denison.