The latest CommSec State of the States report has dealt another blow to Premier Rockliff, who has lost the confidence of the business community and bungled the Spirits project even worse than we originally thought.
According to the report, Tasmania’s economy is flatlining and the state’s economic performance was the worst in the nation across several metrics.
It comes on the back of the business community publicly declaring that it’s confidence in the Liberal minority government has shattered. Last week the TCCI said that “it will be very difficult to trust this Government again”.
Consistent with other recent commentary, the report identified population growth as a key weakness for the Tasmanian economy – annual population growth is near the weakest it’s been in 8 years and that has been driven by the worst net interstate migration levels we’ve seen in decades.
We know that a planeload of Tasmanians is leaving our shores every four days for better opportunities elsewhere. Sadly, the people leaving are working age, tax-paying Tasmanians that we need participating in our economy.
Tasmania had the worst jobs performance of all jurisdictions, down 1.3 percent while all the other states bar South Australia went up.
Tasmania also performed the worst on dwelling starts – down 31.5 per cent – which makes it truly perplexing that Premier Rockliff and the Liberals are so intent on blocking UTAS from using their vacant campus asset to facilitate the construction of 2,000 new homes.
With 6,000 jobs lost since Premier Rockliff’s leadership sent his government into minority, a complete budget disaster, sweeping public sector job cuts and an economic situation that only looks to be getting worse, our economy can’t afford a government that is tired and out of ideas.
Labor’s priority is making sure Tasmanians can find work in well-paid, safe, and secure jobs. Boosting workforce participation, getting people into good jobs, is one of the keys to getting our economy back on track.
Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer
