Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is an absolute pleasure this morning to be able to speak about some of the great things—the positive things—and the encouraging signs within the electorate of Braddon.

But before I get onto that I want to communicate not only to this chamber but to the people of Braddon the very good news of the last few days. The Brotherhood of St Laurence have released their most recent report—and I have been tracking their reports now for some years—in which they announced that the north-west of Tasmania is no longer one of the hotspots in the country for youth unemployment. In fact, youth unemployment in the north-west region, in the seat of Braddon, has fallen by 37 per cent. It has fallen from 21 per cent when we were elected as a government in September 2013 to just 13.2 per cent over the last two-and-a-bit years.

Now, this is great news. The challenge is not over; the work is still to be done, and there are still too many young people—and older people, for that matter—unemployed in the north-west region. But it is a great trend. I am astounded sometimes, when the trolls get working on social media, at how negative people can be. Rather than seeing this as good news they always want to find a way to demean it. I am sure they are our political opponents. But the reality is that this measurement has been taken in the same way as it has been taken for over a decade. There is nothing tricky about it. The reality is that the figures speak for themselves. I would say to those people in Braddon who want to see the negative in everything that it is time to be positive about what is really going on in the beautiful part of the world called 'Braddon'.

I want to refer particularly to the great work of small business in my electorate—the 8,000 small businesses that are doing everything they can. I want to talk about the farmers who are doing everything they can to build their businesses; I want to talk about the innovators in my electorate who still want to see more and more start-ups and jobs in our electorate; and I want to talk about the leadership that is inspiring the electorate on a day-to-day basis.

I said in my maiden speech that innovators are still designing, great people are still dreaming, farmers are still believing and leaders are still inspiring. There are good-news stories going on in the electorate of Braddon. Sadly, as people would know, we lost over 400 jobs with the closure of Caterpillar. That was announced 12 months ago and is pretty well in its final stages of closure, with the exception of research and development. That is a sad story, but the good news out of that is that apparently 60 to 70 per cent of those who have been made redundant have found jobs. And where have they found them? They have found them in the agricultural sector and they have found them in the small business sector. Thank God for small businesses in our economy.

There is another significant part of that number that aspire to commence their own start-up business or, in fact, to get into a small business of their own. They believe in the future of our electorate. They want to stay in the electorate. They want to raise their families in the electorate. I would say to the naysayers in the electorate: get on board with the positive stories that are going on in forestry. Forestry is back in business in Tasmania thanks to the leadership of the Will Hodgman government.

Agriculture is gaining momentum every day. It has been gaining momentum for some years, but imagine what is going to happen when the turbocharge of the free trade agreements kicks in. The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which was only finalised months ago, is yet to kick him. Imagine the possibilities and opportunities that will be there for our farming community, our service community and our advanced manufacturing community.

Jobs are happening in horticulture. People are investing tens of millions of dollars in the horticultural sector, and there are good jobs there. It is a great news story. Look at aquaculture. We have the biggest salmon of anywhere in the world jumping out of the water. People are getting well-paid jobs in the aquaculture sector. And that is not to mention the tremendously positive story in tourism. I think in Tasmania we have the largest percentage growth in tourism of anywhere in the country. People from the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets love visiting Tasmania. They love what we have to offer: the produce, the scenery, the quiet and the chance for contemplation outside their busy cities in the much quieter part of the world called Tasmania.

It is an exciting story, but we do have challenges. We have challenges in energy security. My colleagues and I are working on some solutions to that but it is an issue we have to deal with. We have the opportunity to be part of the LAND 400 Defence bid, about which an announcement on selection will be made over the next few weeks. As I said, the free trade agreements are offering many opportunities.

I have a challenge with the NBN solution that has been proposed for the west coast, and my commitment is to try to find a better solution for those people. But the story out of Braddon is a positive story. I say to people: still dream, because it is a great story. (Time expired)