Tasmania Project survey finds most back pandemic response

The most recent survey of the Tasmania Project, run by the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Social Change, saw 1258 responses to a range of COVID-19 related questions.

TASMANIANS are satisfied with the state’s response to coronavirus and do not believe the economy has been damaged unnecessarily, a university-led research project has found.

The most recent survey of the Tasmania Project, run by the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Social Change, saw 1258 responses to a range of COVID-19 related questions.

Seventy-one per cent of respondents said the State Government had not been too slow to ease coronavirus restrictions, with 45 per cent believing Tasmania’s border restrictions should stay in place until the virus is eradicated in Australia.

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More than four-fifths of those surveyed believed future outbreaks of COVID-19 would be well managed, with 85 per cent disagreeing with the assertion that the state’s economy had been unnecessarily damaged.

A quarter of respondents admitted they did not always follow physical distancing rules, a figure that almost doubled from the first survey conducted in the series.

UTAS Institute for Social Change director Libby Lester said the findings showed strong support for the government’s approach to managing the virus threat.

“I think the government approach on border restrictions has been strongly supported and our results show a shared caution for lifting the broader restrictions too quickly,’’ she said.

Prof Lester said 37 per cent said the experience of the pandemic had changed them as a person, while a third said it had changed their life priorities.

Seven per cent said they had made early withdrawals of their superannuation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

All local government areas of Tasmania were represented in the latest survey, with Hobart, Kingborough, Launceston and Clarence residents forming half of the sample.

Sixty-one per cent of respondents lived in the south, 21 per cent in the north and 18 per cent in the North-West and west.

Prof Lester said the project was set to continue, with results to be shared with government and community service providers.

“The project is designed to be ongoing, and really helping ensure there is good data, good evidence provided without a specific agenda to support decision-making, post-COVID,’’ she said.