Transcript of media conference with TasCOSS CEO Adrienne Picone at Bidencopes Lane, Hobart, 8 April 2021
Adrienne Picone
TasCOSS has spoken to hundreds of Tasmanians about what they need for good life. And the three priorities that they’ve told us are having enough money to afford the basics, having a safe affordable home and and also having physical and mental health. And that’s why in this election campaign, what we’ll be focusing on is jobs, health and housing.
Journalist
What would you practically like to see in those area? We have seen some promises around housing and a couple of minor ones around jobs.
Adrienne Picone
In jobs, we know that right across the community services industry, we need an additional 4000 new jobs just to meet current projected need. Jobs are important to Tasmanians. We need to ensure that we have jobs right across the community services industry. And that’s why we’ll be calling on the government to partner with us to create 4000 additional jobs right across the industry. Will we also ask him for an investment in a Workforce Development Fund to ensure we are equipped with 120 new trainers in the industry.
Journalist
(inaudible)
Adrienne Picone
What we have heard from many of the parties that there is a focus on housing and jobs. But we really need to ensure that Tasmanians are listened to and accounted for right across community.
Journalist
In terms of jobs, housing and health, what would you like to see specifically?
Adrienne Picone
One of the things that Tasmanians have told us is that they prioritise physical and mental health and well being. So we would like to see the government introduced a health in all policies approach, so that health and well being are considered in all decision-making. We’d also like to see a reduction in the potential preventable hospitalisations. We know around 16,000 hospitalisations last year were potentially preventable and we’d need to see a reduction in this.
Journalist
Have you been disappointed that so far the focus has been on internal party and candidate issues and squabbles?
Adrienne Picone
I wouldn’t want to comment on individuals across the campaign. We really need to make sure that Tasmanians needs are listened to and priorities are accounted for.
Journalist
(inaudible)
Adrienne Picone
There’s been some good progress made right across the community in the lead up to the election. We’ve seen with housing, for example, that there’s been a real commitment from the current government in housing. But you only have to look at the numbers on the waiting list and the amount of time they’re waiting to see that we need to do a lot more to break the back of our housing crisis.
Journalist
Health and housing are arguably the two biggest issues facing Tasmania at the moment. Do you think that’s been reflected in the campaign that we’ve seen from both sides of politics so far?
Adrienne Picone
There has been a strong focus on housing and health, but I think we need to do more. We’re facing a crisis right now. What we see in Tasmania, particularly in the area of housing, is that the moratorium on evictions have been taken away. We’ve seen JobSeeker reduced and now JobKeeper actually also taken away. We really are facing a housing crisis here in Tasmania, and we need to do more to break the back of this.
Journalist
Do you think the government and Labor and the Greens, all sides politics of politics, do you think they’re in touch with the struggles of everyday Tasmanians?
Adrienne Picone
One of the things that TasCOSS wants to prioritise as part of this election is that all Tasmanians – no matter their postcode – have their needs met and that their voices are listened to.
Tasmanian Times
Some of the things you mentioned, like the end of JobKeeper, they’re all fairly recent. Do you think things could get worse over the foreseeable future for Tasmanians?
Adrienne Picone
During COVID, we did have a lot of supports in place and we saw during COVID the impact that the increase in JobSeeker had on Tasmanians. Many Tasmanians told us that for the first time they were able to afford the basics and eat fresh fruit and vegetables. Now that we’ve seen a reduction in JobSeeker back to this untenable amount, I think we really will see the true impact of COVID-19.
TasCOSS’s five key election priorities:
- Meaningful, secure jobs for local people in the community services industry
- A secure, affordable home for all
- Accessible health care that is close to home
- Closing the digital divide so no one is left offline
- Delivering lower household electricity bills
TasCOSS 2021 State Election Priorities booklet.
