Will Hodgman will be accused of gimmickry for his plans to offer a financial inducement for expat Tasmanians to move back to the state.
That criticism is unfair.
Mr Hodgman’s policy arises from a more cosmopolitan outlook for Tasmania’s future and a more pragmatic approach to population outflow than the bipartisan consensus of past decades.
In doing so, Mr Hodgman implicitly breaks with the Tasmanian politician’s duty of obeisance to the preferableness of the Tasmanian lifestyle. This duty creates policies designed to cosset and cajole those voters who want or need to believe in the idea of Tasmania as a paradise apart.
For these voters, stemming population outflow is simply a matter of more and better jobs. For these voters, Mr Hodgman’s $5,000 would be better spent trying to stop a Tasmanian-trained nurse or teacher leaving in the first place.
While it is true that some Tasmanians are driven to leave by a lack of suitable employment, there is another, larger group of expatriates who leave for entirely different reasons. They are people whose dreams were of big cities, diverse cultures, of risks and opportunities unavailable in the quiet communities of Tasmania.
The state is not unique in this way. A similar story unfolds across the world’s small regions and cities, from maritime Canada to Siberia, to the regional cities of China’s vast interior.
The appropriate policy response is to accept such outflows as inevitable and focus on the conditions necessary to facilitate the outward-looking, welcoming and cosmopolitan society that will attract people to the state (whether those who are returning home or those who have never set foot on the island).
Instead, expatriate Tasmanians too often look back to the state and find not a warm welcome home but an insular and self-absorbed society, professional cliques and resentment, bitter division and poisonous politics.
Mr Hodgman’s expat inducement is more important for its symbolism than for the dollars and cents. In its outward-looking orientation, it is a step in the right direction towards a more vibrant Tasmanian community.
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