Tasmania’s economy is taking a hit as thousands of locals leave the state in search of better opportunities elsewhere, the state’s Labor opposition says.
New population statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show seven consecutive quarters of net interstate migration losses.
The December quarter was the worst for net interstate migration since 1998 and the past year has also been the most dismal since 1998, with 15,805 people leaving the state – 3,271 more than those moving in.
Workplace demographer Lisa Denny attributes ongoing departures to a lack of secure, full-time, well-paid jobs, noting that 5,000 positions have been lost since Jeremy Rockliff formed a minority government.
“With Premier Rockliff preparing Tasmanians for a horror budget in September, all signs are pointing to tough times ahead and a government with no capacity to respond,” Labor’s Shadow Treasurer Josh Willie says.
“In his report into the Tasmanian economy and Tasmania’s public finances … economist Saul Eslake stated that Tasmania had appeared to have entered another cycle like the 1990s, when the economy slumped to a standstill.”
Treasurer Michael Ferguson accused Labor of ‘cherry picking and misrepresenting statistics in a desperate bid to mislead Tasmanians’.
“Under our Liberal government, Tasmania’s population has been growing quickly and is well on track to exceed our 2050 target population of 650,000 people,” he said.
“Tasmania’s population growth varies over time and, while it has moderated from the above-average levels experienced before the pandemic, it is still forecast to remain positive.”
He said the state’s population increased by 2,400 people last year.
“What Tasmanians won’t forget is that 10,000 people lost their jobs under the last Labor-Green government, or 28 planeloads using Mr Willie’s childish metric.”
