Labor calls for action on state’s economy showing signs of distress

Labor claims a slowing down of new home approvals is the ‘canary in the coal mine’ and wants urgent action to address a declining economy. The government’s response.

Labor MP Shane Broad wants urgent action on a declining economy.

Labor has called on the state government to take urgent action to address signs of a downturn in the state economy.

Shadow Treasurer Shane Broad said the latest series of releases from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicated something was awry.

“Whenever statistics come out from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it’s bad news for Tasmania,” he said.

“We’ve seen a big decline in housing approvals, but also we’ve seen a decline in retail trade and a decline in the jobs that are available that are being advertised.

Labor MP Shane Broad.

“So we see once again, it’s time for the government to actually realise that there is an issue within the state economy.

“We can’t have a government simply talking about how great things are when it’s obviously it’s not the case.”

Figures released since the new year show showed a 13.9 per cent decline in job vacancies in Tasmania in the year to November and a 12 per cent fall in new home building approvals in the same period.

“The building industry is the canary in the coal mine,” Dr Broad said.

“What we’re seeing with this decline in building approvals, that means that there’ll be fewer houses to build in this coming 12 months, with fewer houses, fewer people looking to build, right at the time, when we need housing.

“We still know there’s a desperate need for housing. And this will see a further decline in the state economy.

Minister Jo Palmer. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Liberal Minister Jo Palmer rejected Dr Broad’s analysis.

“I think when you have 13 interest rate hikes in a row it would be fairly obvious to assume that people are not going to be in a position to be putting in applications for building approvals,” Ms Palmer said.

“This is why we need the federal government to get the Australian economy back under control so that we can see those figures to return what they were previously.

“I think that we can cherry pick things like that and that’s certainly what we’ve seen the Labor Party do with these.

“We’ve had 13 interest rate hikes, of course, we’re going to have a drop in building approvals and people in a position to be able to build whether it’s homes, businesses, whatever it might be.

“We need to get the Australian economy under control so that we can see a drop in interest rates.”

Originally published as Labor calls for action on state’s economy showing signs of distress