Will Hodgman: Delivering on Our Promises

Tasmanians voted for strong, stable majority Government at the March election.

We promised to deliver our long-term plan for the future of Tasmania which includes growing jobs, rebuilding frontline services, opening the state up for business and building on our competitive strengths to drive the economy.

Under our plan a range of initiatives will commence on July 1, including:

• $16 million has been committed to reduce elective surgery waiting lists, with $5.3 million to flow immediately. This will provide for an additional 673 elective surgery procedures statewide over the next four months, on top of surgeries already being performed;

• Tasmanian households and small and medium businesses will see power prices drop by 7.8 per cent. For households, this is a saving of around $164 on their annual bill and for small business the saving is around $136;

• TasWater will permanently abolish headworks charges following our $10 million headworks holiday commitment. This will help developments get underway sooner, creating jobs faster and driving investment in Tasmania;

• We are extending the Payroll Tax Rebate for new jobs created between June 30 2014 and June 30 2015. This will support the creation of around 600 new jobs;

• Our Small Business Jobs Bonus, which provides small businesses with up to $1,000 when they hire and retain new full-time employees, commences;

• We are introducing new working with children requirements and will cover 75 per cent of the cost to volunteers applying to work with children;

• The Department of State Growth will be formed with the mandate to create jobs, aggressively pursue investment and drive the economy;

• Tourism Tasmania will become a stand-alone State Authority from July 1 to focus on delivering the Liberal Government’s target of attracting 1.5 million visitors to the state by 2020, which the industry tells us will create up to 8,000 new jobs;

• And AgriGrowth Tasmania will form a one-stop shop linking Government and industry to realise our vision of increasing the value of the sector ten-fold by 2050.

The Liberal Government is delivering on its promises and we are working to deliver the changes Tasmanians voted for.
Will Hodgman, Premier