Our new arrivals must help Tasmania

IBELIEVE that Tasmania has a unique charm that we must vigorously protect.

There are 1.3 million tourists now pouring into Tasmania to experience this charm and there is an expectation this will grow to 1.5 million over the next few years.

The tourism sector has become the most significant economic sector in Tasmania but this is reliant on strong social and environmental attributes.

I am passionate about capping our population at about 600,000 people, with any new permanent arrivals to our beautiful state required to meet a social inclusion test before being granted permanent residency.

The social inclusion test should include a demonstrated inclusion to a club, church, community organisation, knitting group, swimming, netball or golf, etc, a criminalfree record, and swear to be an asset to our community and not be a community destructor such as through criminal behaviour or to have an allegiance to another country. They must be able to speak our language and respect our cultures and assimilate into our society.

Tasmania has done a great job over the years in keeping our beautiful state GE-free, our beef industry hormone growth promotant-free, promoting the arts and events culture and protecting our heritage, but much more is to be done to maintain the brand that is needed to grow our reputation as a world class destination built on authenticity.

Tourism is the bright light for Tasmania but this charm will be diminished with highrise buildings, traffic jams, uncontrolled population growth and threats to our natural environment.

Tourists are coming for low density, low population and high environmental experiences with increased population a direct threat to these tourism drivers. That said, tourists themselves are at risk of threatening the very thing they are coming for and that is where we must manage the tourists in a way that does not threaten the charm.

Cradle Mountain is under stress at the moment with the large numbers trampling the place into the ground.

Hobart is under stress also and to meet the growing tourism industry there might need to be a restriction on numbers to places such as nightclubs where for safety reasons you might have to wait a while for a few to depart until you enter. The same applies to Blundstone Arena or Aurora stadium: capped numbers for infrastructure and safety. This situation is evidence there needs to be serious investment in providing infrastructure and product on the West Coast and in the North-West, North, North-East and Central Highlands to disperse tourists to areas that are currently sleeping assets.

One issue that could assist the ability to develop more ecotourism ventures and events in Tasmania is for the Government to underwrite the public liability insurance for these projects. It is prohibitive in a lot of cases for operators to develop ventures due solely to the out-of-control

insurance costs. In New Zealand this happens and proof is in the pudding because two of my sons are heading there later in the year for blood-pumping experiences such as snowboarding, bungy-jumping and jumping out of a plane.

I worked in Brisbane in the early 1980s and regularly drove from Brisbane to Southport through paddocks, cattle and bush. Try the drive today and it is development all the way. The same can be said for Melbourne where a friendly city is now rife with drugs, crime and traffic congestion.

Brisbane used to be an easy city to navigate. Now even with Siri it is a nightmare to get around. I don’t want to see that happen here in Tasmania.

I have many close friends that have emigrated here from many different places but have embraced our wonderful state and made significant contributions to a better Tasmania. What I don’t want is a divisive community. As with raising children, if they don’t have boundaries, discipline and love they will rebel, so it will be with new arrivals. I have three sons who are all tradesman now and valuable members of society and that is largely due to setting rules, punishment for disobeying the rules and love. Ask Matt, Bradley or Dermot and I am sure they will be able demonstrate what rules, discipline and love result in.

As a fifth-generation Tasmanian with my great great grandmother the first white woman born in the Hampshire settlement, my great grandfather a pioneer builder of grand homes around Elliott and Somerset, my grandfather captain-coach of the Magnet Football side, my parents as farmers and community leaders and myself having worked underground at Rosebery, having been the Pulp plumber, Burnie City Council alderman and now one of Tasmania’s unique chocolatiers, just to mention a few of my community involvements, gives me some authority to raise my views and be taken seriously. As Ian Johnston said in his opinion article (Talking Point, January 26) it is time the politicians listened to the people and not the big business and their generous donations. Hear, hear.