By TCCI Chief Executive Robert Wallace

Robert Wallace

TASMANIA’S new power-sharing Cabinet will need to cooperate on economic policy or risk scaring off investors.

The State’s economy is at a crossroads, with some sectors improving but others declining at a worrying rate. The TCCI’s Survey of Business Expectations shows that while businesses confidence remains relatively stable, there is concern at a decline in exports and a fall in development. More than ever, Tasmania needs political stability to increase confidence, and attract big investors to the state.

All parties need to back investment in infrastructure to help lure developers. We need to see the water and sewerage reforms progressed, rail getting pushed ahead, ports reform and better roads. This will actually start to stimulate some private sector investment when businesses begin to see the establishment of better transport networks.

Political cooperation and stability are the keys.

While the deal between Labor and the Greens promises to bring stability, there were early murmurings of dissent from both sides that did not augur well for a long-term future. Premier David Bartlett and Greens’ leader Nick McKim have enthusiastically chosen to embark on a political marriage of sorts. Hopefully it will last a full term and not end in a costly and painful divorce.

The concession, to allow the Greens’ members to absent themselves from Cabinet on difficult issues, is disappointing. Tasmania needs a full-time ministry where the collective talents and views of all members are contributing at all times. That one or two members can leave the room and then not be bound by the collective Cabinet responsibility is akin to having it both ways.

This is not in the best interests of good government and certainly not in Tasmania’s best interests.

Certainly investors and the business community will hold off to see how the new Cabinet works. The business community is keeping a watching brief and investors will not come to the party unless they are sure the Government is workable and that it will survive.

The Labor - Green deal was as much a consequence of the small size of the parliament as it was of the election outcome itself.

With just 10 Lower House MPs and three in the Legislative Council, Mr Bartlett had little choice but to call on the Greens to compensate for the dearth of talent in his own party.

The new Government would do well to address the challenging issue of the size of the parliament as an urgent priority. While increasing the number of MPs would not have provided any one party with a parliamentary majority, it would have provided a bigger talent pool to more effectively oversee the business of state.