We value and appreciate our very important relationship with China.
Our Government is very supportive of enhancing our relations with China, economically, socially and culturally.
It is our largest trading partner with merchandise and exports totalling $610 million, with Hong Kong, a key gateway to China, at $174 million representing 28 per cent of Tasmania's total exports.
Tasmania has a long-standing sister state relationship with the Fujian Province dating back to 1981.
Chinese interest in this state is already well established with Grange Resources, China Minmetals owning the zinc and lead mines at Rosebery, involvement in the Bluestone Mines joint venture, and through a 75 per cent share in Hydro Tasmania's wind farms in the north-west of the state
Over the past year our tourism industry has enjoyed a 50 per cent increase in the number of Chinese tourists. The extension of the Hobart International Airport's runway will further facilitate the increased number of visitors.
I went to China within the first few weeks of becoming Premier to literally hand-deliver the message to China that we are open for business. I had very important meetings with senior government officials and corporate leaders.
As the first Premier of Tasmania who has been able to meet personally with President Xi, who will be visiting the country later in the year, I extended the invitation personally to the President to come to Tasmania.
A lot of work, planning and engagement at very high levels is being undertaken with embassy and consulate officials to ensure that might happen and we remain very hopeful. I hope to be able to provide more detail on this effort in the very near future.
In response to the extraordinary comments from Federal MP Clive Palmer and later supplemented by Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie, these comments were utterly unproductive. They do not align with our Government's policies or objectives.
I believe they were entirely inappropriate and I repudiate them as offensive and very inflammatory. I will be communicating in very clear terms the views and policy objectives of the Government, which I believe reflect the views of the vast majority of Tasmanians. I will be doing that to senior Chinese Government officials and, most notably, the Chinese Ambassador and also the Federal Government.
This state is open for business and to improving our commercial, diplomatic relations with our key partners and that includes the Chinese.
Senator Lambie may well be a Senator for Tasmania but in this case she has not spoken on behalf of Tasmanians.