Tasmania deserves bold action that

Settling for rising unemployment sells the state short, says David O’Byrne

TASMANIA faces its biggest economic and social crisis since World War II.

We know the anguish and shock felt by the thousands of Tasmanians who have lost jobs and income, or who have seen their small businesses and livelihoods destroyed.

We must urgently rebuild. Our biggest priority must be jobs and unemployment.

Labor has a jobs plan with ambition for Tasmania’s economy and compassion for disadvantaged regions and people. A plan for 35,000 jobs. A plan that will actually reduce unemployment. A plan called Working for Tasmania.

We will invest more than $ 470m in a Jobs and Innovation Fund, in rebuilding and renewing TAFE, in tourism and hospitality, in small business, in careers and jobs placement, in environmental protection and in our disadvantaged and neglected regions. And we will directly support Tasmania’s manufacturing, mining, agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. Labor will encourage the growth of the advanced manufacturing, IT and premium food, wine and spirits sectors.

And we will use debt responsibly to deliver 25,000 infrastructure jobs and make sure projects are delivered on time. We will upgrade the Burnie, Devonport and Bell Bay ports to help our exporters get their products to market quickly and efficiently.

Labor does not blame the Gutwein government for the recession or the current unemployment crisis. We gave bipartisan support to public health and economic measures designed to save lives and to prevent an even bigger economic calamity.

But we will hold the government to account on plans to get Tasmania out of recession as the pandemic crisis recedes. Because behind every unemployment statistic is a real worker with bills to pay and a family to support.

We need to remember that it is easy to fall into recession, but hard to find a path to sustained recovery. And this is particularly so for Tasmania.

After the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s and the global financial crisis, Tasmania’s employment recovery took several years longer than the nation as a whole. The Tasmanian people want and deserve bold action.

A crisis unprecedented in living memory requires an unprecedented response.

Our plan is in stark contrast to the Budget released on Thursday by Peter Gutwein. The Gutwein budget lacks ambition. The Premier does not believe Tasmania can be the equal of the nation on economic growth and unemployment. The Premier has a plan for unemployment and a jobless recovery.

The Premier says he will create 25,000 new jobs. But the Budget has unemployment climbing to 8.5 per cent in the coming year and remaining at 8.25 per cent by the middle of 2022. And it forecasts the loss of nearly 7000 more jobs over the next two years.

The Budget forecasts two consecutive years of recession with economic growth falling by 1.5 per cent in the coming year. Growth in 2022 will only be 3.75 per cent compared to national growth of 4.25 per cent. The government has so little ambition it does not even bother to provide forecasts for employment and economic growth in the last two years of