Jeff Kennett seeks tri-state merger

SOUTH Australia, Victoria and Tasmania should merge to create a greater southeast state, former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says.

SOUTH Australia, Victoria and Tasmania should merge to create a greater southeast state, former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says.

But he has conceded it was extremely unlikely the three states would endorse the idea.

Mr Kennett, who first raised the idea in the 1990s, said it should be debated as smaller states struggled with dying industries and increased localised unemployment.

"We are the southeastern corner of Australia and our populations are fairly small (and) we rely on each other very much," Mr Kennett told Hobart ABC Radio.

"Tasmania's major area of tourism imports comes from Victoria. Victoria takes a lot of your (Tasmanian) produce, particularly food. The same applies for South Australia.

"Why don't we combine the three states, get rid of the three names so no one is feeling particularly aggrieved, and create a new southeastern corner of Australia administrative unit so that we could get the efficiencies in the system that would ensure the taxes people pay would be more directed to things that taxes should be delivering: good education, good health."