The Tasmanian Liberal Government is continuing to deliver our long-term Plan for jobs and economic growth, and the results are beginning to show.
More Tasmanian's have a job and the gap between the state and national unemployment rate is narrowing. Business confidence is the highest in the nation, building approvals are up, and retail trade is at record highs. A record number of visitors are travelling to our state, revitalising our cities and regional communities.
The Second Quarter Update released today shows we have delivered in full on 24 of 26 initiatives listed for delivery in the second quarter of our second year in Government. The remaining two are almost complete.
In this quarter we launched the Affordable Housing Strategy, which will help 1,600 vulnerable households into housing, and create up to 550 full time jobs in our building sector.
We have tabled Tasmania’s new single, state-wide planning scheme that will overhaul the planning system, delivering around 80 per cent consistency state-wide and providing clarity and certainty for everyone.
We have created Tasmania’s Population Growth Strategy, which aims to increase our population to 650,000 by 2050 because a bigger Tasmania is a better Tasmania.
We are continuing a reform agenda in health by merging the three THOs into one and implementing changes from the Health White paper, and in education by investing an additional $1 million to implement recommendations of the Ministerial Taskforce into education for students with Disabilities.
The Spirit of Tasmania’s have been refurbished, on time and on budget, giving visitors a fitting first impression of our state. Forward bookings for day sailing are up a massive 126 per cent on the previous year as of last month, and this will only increase as our new Spirits encourage even more visitors to our state.
It is a great time to be a Tasmanian and as a Government we will continue to work hard to make Tasmania an even greater place to call home.