Tassie slips from top on economic rankings

AFTER nine consecutive quarters in top spot, Tasmania has slipped to No.3 in CommSec’s latest economic performance report.

Victoria is now Australia’s best-performing economy, slightly ahead of the ACT, followed by Tasmania and Queensland, with a small gap to Western Australia, South Australia and NSW and another gap to the Northern Territory.

Treasurer Michael Ferguson described as “fantastic” the outcomes in the report, but Labor’s treasury spokesman Shane Broad said the “tumbling” down the rankings was no surprise.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said other states hit hard by Covid lockdowns were now catching up.

“Every economy has its place in the sun and Tasmania has had its for nine consecutive quarters,” he said.

“It’s like being No.1 in sport, it’s hard to hold on to that top spot,” he said.

The CommSec report looks at eight key economic indicators and Mr James said all states and territories continued to “perform well in challenging times”.

“Governments are now attempting to ‘live with Covid’, supporting consumers and businesses from cost-of-living pressures, while at the same time scaling back stimulus measures,” the report said.

Tasmania’s strength was equipment investment and its weakness was housing finance with home loans 27.7 per cent down over the year.

Queensland led the national average on all of the eight indicators and Tasmania was better than the national average in three – construction work, population growth and housing finance. The fastest wage growth was in Hobart and Canberra and the highest inflation rate was in Perth.

Mr Ferguson said the CommSec report showed that Tasmania’s economy continued to be “one of the strongest in Australia”.

“These outcomes are fantastic and are consistent with what we know from ABS data – we have strong economic growth, very low unemployment, strong population growth and a buoyant construction sector in Tasmania,” he said. “In addition, our retail and goods export sectors continue to reach ever-increasing new highs.”

However, Dr Broad said Tasmania no longer led on any of the eight economic indicators, “with our annual growth now worse than the national average”.

“This economic downturn comes as no surprise, as Michael Ferguson wrecks the budget with record debt, Guy Barnett sits on his hands as power prices surge, and Jeremy Rockliff cuts the real wages of nurses, teachers and firefighters,” he said.