David O'Byrne cannot be trusted to read a simple Australian Bureau of Statistics report.
Mr O'Byrne refuses to listen to experts, and is deliberately ignoring that we are getting on with delivering an economic and social support package valued at over $1 billion, the largest in the country as a proportion of our economy.
The facts are:
Mr O’Byrne has proven time and again that he cannot read simple statistics, and uses his dodgy figures to repeatedly talk down Tasmania, our recovery and our economy.
He claims yesterday's jobs data shows that job losses are continuing, when in fact the opposite is true. Jobs have continued to grow steadily over the past two months, and over the fortnight to 22 August, jobs grew 1.3 per cent, the fastest growth in the nation.
Mr O'Byrne also yesterday claimed that the retail industry has lost 300 jobs in the month when in fact the data clearly shows that retail jobs grew 1.1 per cent over the month.
The last time Mr O'Byrne had some responsibility he drove this state into recession. Now he uses every opportunity to talk down our economy, our businesses and jobs at a time when we should be supporting Tasmanians to once again rebuild Tasmania to be the economic powerhouse it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government will continue to deliver our nation-leading economic and social support, and we will continue to back bold strategies to stimulate demand, seek new directions for Tasmania and grow jobs as we recover from the pandemic.