Leave the parochialism behind us
Playing one region against another does nothing for our state, says Peter Skillern
AS we begin the journey that will be 2021, we do so in the very real hope that it will be a much better year than the last. We are nevertheless all aware that the pandemic is still impacting many other parts of the world. We remain fortunate to reside in one of the best and safest places on the planet, our economy is moving strongly and our COVID-19 health status is excellent. However, there is no place for complacency. We have seen elsewhere the situation can and does change rapidly and we need to work to ensure our enviable position remains.
Understandably our focus as a community over the past 12 months has been on COVID-19 and its health consequences. We have also seen that this pandemic has an economic element. It is that economic element that lingers, it is one that other places around the globe are experiencing and one that ultimately filters down to the Tasmanian economy. It is this that will continue to challenge us all long after the virus is contained. The global economy will recover, but it will take time and will need to be done in the context of a constrained virus.
So, the first challenge of the New Year is economic, but what of all the other issues and challenges that were there well before we all started to focus on a little-known virus.
Well, they sadly are still relevant and no, the pandemic has not changed their capacity to severely impact our state.
The age-old parochial climate in Tasmania is alive and well and still acting as one of, if not the greatest brake on improving the potential of our wonderful state. The mindset pits region against region and even within the regions’ subsets of parochial behaviour between towns and cities. If one has a port, then so does the other, if one has a newspaper then other ones have too and so on. Half a million Tasmanians simply cannot financially support that type of thinking and structure. Equally they cannot sustain 29 councils for a population that elsewhere would be represented by one. All these inefficiencies and duplications serve only to constrain our great state financially and arguably socially. Politically it serves some to play one region against another, indeed some politicians have run campaigns along these lines, but it is shortsighted and does not enhance the potential of our state.
What we need is a vision for Tasmania, one that articulates who we are and where we are going, one that casts parochial rhetoric and thinking into the wastebasket of the past. A vision that lays out a map to objectives that every Tasmanian can subscribe to and engage with, that does not exclude but rather is inclusive of all and makes every Tasmanian a stakeholder in not only their future but the future of our state. It can be done, it requires political courage and a clear intent of where we wish to be as a state in 10, 20 years and beyond. So, let us start the conversation now, engage with people across the community, hear their thoughts and aspirations and begin a process that can ultimately make this the greatest state in the country.