Government Pursuing Bold Population Target

The Liberal Government is committed to growing Tasmania to create jobs and economic opportunities for the State.

We have set a target to grow the population to 650,000 people by 2050.

We recognise this represents a bold and ambitious target and we don’t resile from this challenge. We need to go for growth because we recognise that population growth is critical to sustaining economic growth for Tasmania. But it won’t be easy.

Given the significance of the population challenge, securing a growth path for population in Tasmania will require deliberate, targeted and strategic intervention.

That is why the Government is hard at work developing a Population Strategy. As part of the development of the Strategy, early in the new year the Government will be releasing a Discussion Paper seeking input from experts, local government and the broader community on the best ways to achieve our population target.

Population projections released by the Government yesterday confirm the importance of adopting a strategic approach.

The projections lay out the possibilities if we are proactive in growing our population, with the potential to achieve our 2050 target and reach a population of 768,000 by 2062 under the high growth scenario.

However, it also lays out the risks of not acting now, with projections showing that without targeted intervention, Tasmania could experience population decline by 2058.

Yesterday evening I spoke at the Australian Population Association’s Biennial Conference, which is being held in Hobart over December 3-4.

This was a great opportunity to both listen and speak to the country’s leading population experts on the challenges and opportunities for Tasmania.
Matthew Groom, Minister for State Growth