Stay positive as we change

It is a shame Hobart Lord Mayor Ron Christie continues to go so nuclear with his concerns about growth, claiming visitors to our capital city each summer amount to a “stealth invasion” driven by the “insatiable demand” of a tourism industry out of control.

Lord Mayor Ron Christie. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

WHEN Tasmanians who have been away for a while come home, one of the first things they recognise instantly is the friendly and laid-back nature of their fellow Apple Islanders. These are also traits that those who visit our shores remark upon.

It is a shame, then, that Hobart Lord Mayor Ron Christie continues to go so nuclear with his concerns about growth — today claiming that visitors to our capital city each summer amount to a “stealth invasion” driven by the “insatiable demand” of a tourism industry that is currently out of control.

It’s a shame because Ald Christie does have a point, in that these are concerns held by many in our community. There is a real — and understandable — feeling among many that Hobart, and Tasmania, is slowly but surely losing some of the things that have made it so comfortable for so long.

The facts are that Tasmania is changing, and change is always difficult. But change is also inevitable, and there’s usually a flip side to the pain points. For instance, economic figures released this week show that Tassie is no longer at the back of the pack when comparing the states and territories, and that growth in private sector investment here has been the fastest of any state over the past year. What all that means is that our young adults no longer need to leave to find employment. It means our economic success is no longer reliant on industries that — for all their romanticism — have had their best days. And it means the government is flush with taxation revenue that it can reinvest in infrastructure and service delivery.

In his piece today, Ald Christie talks about the value of word-of-mouth as part of his argument that we should no longer be advertising our tourism industry. He’s right, insofar as the world today is so hyper-connected that any message — good or bad — can travel far and wide within minutes. In knowing that, Ald Christie should be more circumspect in his language. Thanks to Sue Hickey’s move to Parliament, he holds the office of the Lord Mayor of Tasmania’s capital city. That means that what he says is noticed — and reported on — beyond our shores. (His position is also why the Mercury keeps running his missives).

Ald Christie is also a politician facing an election next month. And so he is entitled to campaign, to be giving people a reason to fill out their ballot paper and walk it down to the mailbox. But he should take a breath and reflect on what damage his inflammatory statements could be having on our reputation.

The way through these growing pains is not just to whinge, to impose a knee-jerk ban on cruise ships, or for the government to stop running tourism ads.

Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, we should instead be positive. We should define what it is that we most value about this place — and therefore want most to protect. All our leaders can then calmly work together on how best to ensure that happens.

As Ald Christie points out, these most-valued assets could well include our heritage, our building height regulations, and our mountain. But one of those assets might also be our friendly and welcoming reputation — a reputation that, in a bid for votes, the Lord Mayor of Hobart could be increasingly putting at risk.