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Tasmania’s
population growth is not all it seems and much more
needs to be done to attract and retain young people
in Tasmania.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of
Statistics yesterday show Tasmania recorded
population growth of 0.7% last year, consistent with
its average growth rate for the past five years, but
the slowest of all States.
If recent trends continue, Tasmania will record net
population losses in the 15-29 age group, and be
ageing faster than any other State.
Tasmania
needs creative, young and intelligent people to
increase productivity into the future – one of the
key economic challenges confronting the State.
In this regard, the most recent migration statistics
from the ABS, for 2004/05, are cause for some
concern.
They show that people aged over 65 accounted for
less than 4% of all interstate movements in
Australia
– yet this age group accounted for 43% of the
Tasmania’s overall net gain from migration.
Tasmania
also recorded the highest median age for interstate
arrivals, and the lowest median age for interstate
departures (along with the ACT and Northern
Territory).
In 2005/06, Tasmania’s net migration gain was 60,
down from 187 in 2004/05 and 2500 in 2003/04.
The government, in a submission on a Productivity
Commission study in 2004, said it believed the
number of Tasmanians in younger age groups (under
15, 15-34 and 35-54) appeared to have peaked and was
expected to decline significantly over the next four
decades. Over the same period, the number of
Tasmanians aged over 65 was projected to more than
double, and the number aged over 80 to treble.
This has far-reaching economic implications.
While the ABS statistics released yesterday don’t
provide an age break-down of the components of the
population growth recorded in 2005/06, it is clear
that strategies are needed to keep young people
here, and attract a greater proportion of younger
migrants.
This was a key message in Mr Hodgman’s address to a
business forum on Launceston this week, also
attended by ANZ Chief Economist, Saul Eslake.
“My vision for Tasmania is more than it being the
nicest little retirement village on the planet,” he
said.
Further information: Georgia Warner 0418 564
073
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