Tasmanian Labor
Premier’s backflip has created uncertainty in tourism and freight sector
Liberal Government cannot be trusted on infrastructure
Peter Gutwein should be ashamed of himself for wasting $146,000 of taxpayers’ money in the embarrassing fiasco to replace the Spirit of Tasmania vessels.
Shadow Infrastructure Minister Shane Broad said the Premier’s humiliating backflip has angered local shipbuilders and created uncertainty and anxiety in the tourism and freight sector.
“After a delay of almost a year, Peter Gutwein today revealed in Parliament that he spent $146,000 of taxpayers’ money on a report he completely ignored when he backflipped right back to square one – announcing the ships will be built in Finland after all,” Dr Broad said.
Check against delivery
Madam Speaker,
In January last year I was honoured to receive the support of my colleagues to become the State’s 46th Premier and shortly after that, around 12 months to the day, coronavirus found its way to the Australian mainland and unfortunately to our shores as well.
We were faced with the probability of a significant health crisis if action wasn’t taken swiftly to protect our community, that action meant limiting people’s movements and closing businesses where people congregated, and sadly the impact on our economy was severe.
We banned cruise ships, closed our borders and we stayed home to save lives.
White Shark. Photo: Andrew Fox, Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions.
A team of 22 scientists have used data from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) to track the movements of marine organisms during the Covid-19 lockdown in a new study, revealing the impact of human activities on marine species in Australian waters.
With shark cage-diving as a case study, the research team, led by Associate Professor Charlie Huveneers from Flinders University, monitored the movements and residency of two marine species, white sharks and yellowtail kingfish, over a 51-day period during the longest break in cage-diving activity at the Neptune Islands near Port Lincoln for over 20 years.
Jeremy Rockliff,Minister for Education and Training
TasTAFE is in a stronger position than ever before, and since coming to Government we have paid off Labor’s debt, invested $41.8 million in new facilities and seen TAFE awarded 7 years accreditation.
Thanks to TAFE’s hard work, Tasmania has the highest apprentice and trainee completions rates in Australia, and TAFE students were awarded Australia’s Apprentice of the Year and Vocational Student of the Year late last year.
It is now time to take the next steps in TAFE’s evolution.
One of the strongest themes in PESRAC is the critical role of skills in building recovery in Tasmania and TasTAFE’s central role in this.
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Regional Australia bounces back as Aussies explore their own backyards
Regional Australia has experienced a sharp bounce-back in spending since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and is outstripping the recovery in metro areas, according to new data released by the Commonwealth Bank today.
The hospitality and tourism sectors in regional areas across the nation experienced a 15 per cent increase in transactions by the end of January this year compared to twelve months ago – which was just before the dramatic drop-off in business caused by the arrival of the pandemic in Australia.
The retail sector in regional Australia has experienced an even bigger bounce, with transactions up 19 per cent year-on-year.