Senator ASKEW (Tasmania) (13:16): As I commence my contribution to respond to the Governor-General's speech, I would firstly like to acknowledge the successful return of the Morrison coalition government at the election held earlier this year and to acknowledge all involved, especially those from my home state, Tasmania. As my colleagues on this side of the chamber would appreciate, the Liberal-National coalition is the government for all Australians. On our benches we have doctors, farmers, soldiers, lawyers, mothers, fathers, police officers, nurses and the list goes on. We're the government for all Australians, and at this election the people of Australia had a clear choice, and once again they put their trust in us. They believe that the coalition government will deliver lower taxes, will lower their power bills, will support the nation's small businesses and will lower the cost of life-saving medicines. Aspirational Australians want to have the opportunity to achieve their goals, and they believe and understand that we will support them. We will and are delivering on our commitments. Turning to Tasmania, I would like to congratulate my good friend and now parliamentary colleague Bridget Archer on being elected as the member for Bass. I observed firsthand her dedication and commitment during the campaign and believe she will be an outstanding advocate and champion for the people of Northern Tasmania. The seat of Braddon was also returned to the Liberal Party, with Gavin Pearce being elected as the member for Braddon. A former soldier with over 20 years of military service both at home in Australia and leading troops overseas on operations, he too will serve his electorate well. I would like to congratulate them both on their success and thank their campaign committees, volunteers and the Liberal Party members across the state for their wonderful support throughout the campaign. My Tasmanian Liberal Senate colleagues also deserve acknowledgement. I acknowledge Senator the Hon. Richard Colbeck on his re-election to the Senate and his appointment as Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and Minister for Youth and Sport. Congratulations and a warm welcome to Senator Claire Chandler, who joined us in the Senate in July and has certainly hit the ground running. Following the election, Senator the Hon. Jonathon Duniam was appointed as Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries, Assistant Minister for Regional Tourism and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate. I have no doubt that Senator Duniam will continue his strong advocacy for regional Tasmania and regional Australia in these roles. Thanks also to Senator the Hon. Eric Abetz, who worked alongside the campaign both in Tasmania and across Australia to help secure the coalition victory. Over the past five years, the Tasmanian economy has made a remarkable recovery. It is no coincidence that this recovery occurred under state Liberal and federal coalition governments. Under re-elected state Liberal and federal coalition governments, the rebuilding of the Tasmanian economy will continue. Economic indicators in categories such as GDP, exports, employment and retail spending fluctuate over time and will continue to do so. They are subject to outside influences, and there is no doubt that there will be economic challenges ahead for our nation and Tasmania, but both Tasmanian and federal economies are now in a much better position to weather any economic headwinds that may come our way. Despite the doom and gloom we often hear from Labor and the Greens, the economic data shows that the Tasmanian economy is now in very good shape. However, that was not the case in 2013, when the coalition came to power in Canberra. Back then, the Tasmanian economy was a basket case. It had the lowest gross state product per capita in Australia, the nation's highest unemployment rate and the lowest population growth. It had the highest proportion of Australians without superannuation and the lowest proportion of adults in the nation who had finished year 12, and it had one of the lowest retention rates to year 12. In 2013 Tasmania lagged behind the nation on almost every economic indicator. Between 2010 and 2014 about 11,000 full-time jobs were lost in Tasmania under the Labor-Green governments of David Bartlett and Lara Giddings. Traditional industries like forestry were being destroyed by the Labor-Green government, with no plan to replace the economic hit. Approximately half the state was locked up while every year Australia was importing $2 billion in forestry products. At that time, Tasmania was in desperate need of policy coherence between the state and federal governments to respond to the many challenges it was facing. The coalition's economic growth plan for Tasmania was launched in 2013. It provided the architecture to help turn Tasmania's economic fortunes around and encourage long-term, sustainable growth. With the support of the coalition economic growth plan, Tasmanian Liberal leader Will Hodgman took his blueprint for a modern economy to the 2014 state election. The Hodgman blueprint was based on Tasmania's competitive strengths. It was designed to create jobs, fix the Labor-Green budget mess, encourage investment, rebuild essential services and cut red and green tape. It was a plan that was resoundingly endorsed by Tasmanians at the 2014 state election, and it was a plan that worked, and continues to work, despite revenue downgrades due to smaller GST distributions, decreased stamp duty receipts, unprecedented demand for public health services and the devastating summer bushfires. Like the Morrison government, the Tasmanian Liberal government has got its budget back in order, eliminating deficits and building surpluses for the future. Last financial year Tasmania's economic growth was better than the national average and, per capita, Tasmania is growing at its fastest rate in a decade—nearly double the national average. Premier Will Hodgman said in his 2019 State of the State address that Tasmania is growing like never before. He said that respected economists have reported that, for the first time in 27 years, economic growth in Tasmania is now based broadly across all industry sectors. It is a wonderful achievement and is allowing the Tasmanian government, in partnership with the Morrison government, to build important social infrastructure. That means better schools, hospitals, housing and roads—all of those things that are improving the liveability and the productivity of Tasmania. A number of expert sources concur on the great improvement in the Tasmanian economy. In July, Moody's Investor Service credit opinion of the Tasmanian government's finances noted that 'despite softer economic conditions throughout the nation, the Tasmanian economy was resilient and diverse and continued to perform above its long-term trend'. Moody's identified the tourism industry as a driver of employment growth and private investment. Tourism Tasmania figures for the year to March 2019 show visitor numbers grew by three per cent to 1.32 million, with visitor spending reaching a record $2.49 billion—an increase of five per cent over the previous year. People are coming to Tasmania from interstate and overseas for a variety of reasons. They are coming to experience the state's wild places, to visit the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart and other cultural attractions, and to ride on the growing number of mountain bike trails in Tasmania. Since 2013, federal coalition governments have provided $2.5 million for mountain bike developments in north-eastern Tasmania, including the now famous Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails. Mountain bike trails are helping to rebuild the economies of towns like Scottsdale and Derby in Tasmania's north-east, local economies hard-hit by the Labor-Green policies on forestry. The federal government is supporting similar developments in other parts of the state, such as the Wild Mersey Mountain Bike Trails between Sheffield and Railton, and the St Helens Mountain Bike Trails due to be opened in the next few weeks. Visitor numbers are also being boosted by business events. More than 36,000 delegates attended business events and conferences in Tasmania last year, injecting almost $150 million into the economy. CommSec is another source reflecting the vastly improved conditions of the Tasmanian economy in 2019 compared to 2013, when the state was on the bottom of just about every economic indicator. CommSec's State of the states report earlier this year ranked Tasmania's economy the equal third strongest in the nation. Tasmania was ranked first on population growth and business investment, and second on housing finance. The report noted that higher population growth had the spin-off effect of driving new home purchases and business growth. Last year interstate migration to Tasmania reached its highest level in nearly 15 years. Mainlanders are looking to Tasmania for a cooler, more relaxed lifestyle—as I mentioned in my first speech, a 'Tassie change'. Housing affordability is a huge issue at the moment right across Australia, but, despite rising property values, Tasmanian real estate remains eminently affordable compared to many mainland centres. According to the Real Estate Institute of Tasmania, in March this year the median price for a house was $483,750 in greater Hobart, $342,500 in Launceston and $275,000 on the north-west coast. And I can tell you that those figures will get you a great home in a wonderful environment, with all the necessary facilities close by, along with beaches, mountains and beautiful, unspoiled countryside a short distance away. Have I sold you? We all know that there is a lot more to do in relation to housing affordability and homelessness, and the Morrison government is committed to continuing to focus on the supply of more social housing in Tasmania. This was evidenced recently when Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer, the Hon. Michael Sukkar MP, agreed to waive Tasmania's housing related debt to the Commonwealth, in recognition of the unique challenges with housing affordability and homelessness in the state. Continued improvement in this area is only possible with a strong economy at both a state and federal level—in Tasmania's case, an economy increasingly bolstered by exports. According to ABS data released earlier this month, the estimated nominal value of overseas merchandise exports from Tasmania increased to $3.71 billion. Mainland China was the largest importer of Tasmanian goods in the year to July 2019, accounting for 31.7 per cent of the state's total nominal value of exports. Hong Kong and China together were estimated to have accounted for 35 per cent of total Tasmanian exports in the year to July 2019, but it's not just China that is increasingly taking Tasmanian minerals and agricultural goods. Exports to the USA were up $31 million, or 16 per cent, mainly due to increases in non-ferrous metals and ores. Exports to Indonesia were up $29 million, or over 15 per cent. Exports to Thailand were up $13 million, or 6.7 per cent. Seafood, dairy and horticultural products are among the other Tasmanian goods winning overseas markets. The latest data from the Tasmanian Department of State Growth shows that seafood products, predominantly Atlantic salmon and abalone, are now worth more than wood and paper products to the Tasmanian economy. And the dairy industry is growing in importance. Over the past five years, the export of dairy products was up $43 million, or 43.7 per cent. Overseas food exports from Tasmania are increasing, up almost eight per cent to a record $740 million in the financial year 2017-18, with Asia increasing in importance to the Tasmanian economy. In the year to May 2019, China, including Hong Kong, accounted for 31 per cent of Tasmania's agricultural and seafood exports. Around 20 per cent of Tasmania's agricultural goods and seafood were exported to Japan. In some sectors the increase in export value has been spectacular. Fruit production, for example, has increased by 212 per cent since 2013-14, to $197 million in 2017-18. The Korea, China and Japan free trade agreements negotiated by the coalition government in 2014 and 2015 are clearly delivering benefits to the Tasmanian economy. The coalition's support of irrigation schemes in Tasmania is also of great importance to ensuring supply for these Tasmanian exports. Since 2013 we've invested $300 million in Tasmanian irrigation schemes. With farmers and the state government we are helping secure and improving existing agricultural activities and making possible the development of exciting new rural enterprises. Tasmania is a regional and rural economy, and the Prime Minister spoke recently of the importance of regional Australia to our national economy. He noted that, with a population that has shifted massively to the larger cities over the past 50 years, we tend to forget the contribution of our regional based industries. In Tasmania, that became particularly evident, with many national businesses centralising their administrations in Melbourne or Sydney, with senior and higher paid staff lost to the state. But, as the Prime Minister pointed out, one key aspect of economic resilience in regional areas is the creation of a diversified economy. The coalition government is helping Tasmania to achieve that goal with practical support for sectors such as higher education, horticulture and tourism. The Morrison government also recognises that small to medium businesses are key drivers in regional economies. As the Prime Minister has said, what is in the interest of rural and regional Australians is in the national interest. This commitment to regional economies like Tasmania's will be supported by the Morrison government's plan to keep our economy strong, to keep Australians safe and to keep Australians together. Tasmanian exporters will be among those benefiting from existing and new trade deals, which by the end of this term will cover around 90 per cent of Australian trade. This government will be returning the budget to surplus—the first surplus in 12 years—and will deliver surpluses over the forward estimates. That's a predicted $45 billion in surpluses over the next four years. And, despite the unconscionable opposition of Labor and the Greens, the government's first legislative act was to provide tax relief for hardworking Australians earning up to $126,000 a year, and lifting the tax threshold over the next five years. Our plan for tax relief also includes small, medium and family businesses. A stronger economy means more Australians getting into better paid jobs, and there will be a focus on regional areas of the country, like Tasmania. Our job creation plan comes with a $585 million commitment to improving skills and training, creating 80,000 new apprenticeships and establishing 10 new industry training hubs in key locations of high youth unemployment in regional Australia. The apprentice wage subsidy trial will be doubled to help 3,200 young Australians in regional and rural areas get the jobs and the qualifications they need. Australians who want to return to the workforce will be assisted by the government's new program called Mid-Career Checkpoint. Nationally, this program will support up to 40,000 people, particularly women, to return to the workforce. A strong economy allows us to invest in education. Every Australian, from early childhood to university, should have access to a quality education. In Tasmania, education, along with tourism and horticulture, is one of those sectors that are helping to diversify the local economy. When opening this parliament, His Excellency the Hon. David Hurley AC, DSC noted that a strong economy creates a stronger society. A strong economy allows more spending on schools and hospitals and allows the government to subsidise more medicines, fund better roads, and provide more support to Australia's rural and regional communities. And, just as importantly, a strong economy makes us more resilient in uncertain economic times. In my home state, the Tasmanian economy today is a far cry from the mess left by the Labor-Greens government back in 2014. It is an economy that has been rebuilt by a coalition government in Canberra and a Liberal government in Tasmania. It is an outstanding example of policy coherence between state and federal governments to respond to the many economic challenges we face.