Going hard and fast on borders kept Tasmania safe: Gutwein

Premier Peter Gutwein says the state’s government’s fast action on the pandemic — and quickly shutting our borders — was the best response, as he delivered a nationwide address. DETAILS >>

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HISTORY would judge favourably the resilience, compassion and innovation of the Tasmanian people in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Premier Peter Gutwein has told a national audience.

Mr Gutwein delivered his Tasmanian State of the State 2020 address via livestream on Thursday.

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia event is one of a series delivered by state premiers.

The theme of the address was “2020 – a year like no other” and Mr Gutwein outlined the state’s response to the COVID pandemic and plans for economic recovery.

Premier Peter Gutwein ahead of the State of the State address. Picture: Zak Simmonds

He said the state had been one of the safest places on earth to weather the storm.

“Right now we’re living through a period of significant change and uncertainty, which we have not seen before on this scale in global history,” he said.

“In generations to come, people will look back at Tasmania and on the events of 2020.

“It’s my hope that they will say that Tasmania was a state which did all it could to save lives, to support Tasmanians, their businesses and their livelihoods.

“It’s my hope that it records the resilience and the compassion of the Tasmanian people, and it’s my hope it will be said that because we are the greatest state of innovators and entrepreneurs, that not only did we recover but we rebuilt a stronger Tasmania with opportunities for its people for generations to come.”

Mr Gutwein told viewers that the state had responded quickly to the crisis, saying he was particularly proud of the nimbleness of the information technology sector.

“For our IT sector to pivot so quickly to enable kids to learn from home in such a short period of time, to support the nearly 80,000 school students that we had getting online and being able to work from home, IT played such an enormously strong role in terms of assisting is with the initial impacts,” he said.

A similar response had transitioned many businesses from shopfronts to online: part of productivity reforms that would place the state on a strong footing for economic recovery, he said.

An example of fast and necessary reform was the response of government, particularly through national cabinet, he said.

“It’d be fair to say that we changed more in a handful of meetings – and I think we’d all agree this as premiers – than what is being achieved in a six of 10 years period prior.

“I hope that can continue. I’m sure it will, because the challenge that we now face is not a health one, it’s an economic one.”

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