![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/bef31edd-lq0ovtfoji4755k_kusow.jpg\")
Shadow Treasurer Dean Winter labelled the situation as \u2018economic devastation\u2019. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\nTasmania was the only Australian state to record negative economic growth in the latest quarterly report, prompting fresh political debate over the government\u2019s economic direction.<\/p>\n
The CommSec State of the States report, released today, shows Tasmania\u2019s economy contracted by 0.2% over the past year \u2013 the weakest performance in the country and the only state to go backwards.<\/p>\n
Shadow Treasurer Dean Winter seized on the findings, labelling them \u201ceconomic devastation\u201d and blaming Premier Jeremy Rockliff\u2019s deals with the Greens and crossbenchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusinesses say they cannot trust Jeremy Rockliff\u2019s Liberal-Green government and how could you blame them?\u201d Winter said.<\/p>\n
The report shows Tasmania\u2019s household spending fell 0.3% over the year, the weakest performance nationally.<\/p>\n
Shadow Treasurer Dean Winter labelled the situation as \u2018economic devastation\u2019. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n
Equipment investment dropped 3.0% and construction work declined 3.6%.<\/p>\n
CommSec described private sector demand in Tasmania as \u201canaemic\u201d and said the state is \u201cawaiting a much-needed housing recovery and rebound in exports\u201d.<\/p>\n
Population growth also lagged the rest of the nation, with Tasmania recording just 0.20% annual growth compared to Western Australia\u2019s 2.28%.<\/p>\n
Winter linked the poor performance directly to recent government decisions, particularly agreements on salmon policy and the decision to ban greyhound racing to secure crossbench support.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could you invest in a state where a signed letter from the premier means nothing?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The report showed Tasmania leading the nation on unemployment, with its 4.0% jobless rate ranking first and sitting 25.2% below the decade average.<\/p>\n
Employment grew 2.5% over the year, second only to South Australia\u2019s 3.7%.<\/p>\n
The state ranked sixth overall in quarterly performance rankings, not last, though it fell from fifth position in the previous report.<\/p>\n
Western Australia dominated the rankings for the fifth consecutive quarter, benefiting from strong population growth and household spending.<\/p>\n
Queensland climbed to second place while the Northern Territory jumped from eighth to fourth.<\/p>\n
The report said all states are facing challenging conditions, with the shift from public to private sector-led growth creating headwinds across the nation.<\/p>\n
The CommSec report tracks eight key economic indicators, comparing current performance against decade-long averages to assess how states are performing relative to their normal economic conditions.<\/p>\n
Treasurer Eric Abetz acknowledged the report recognises \u201cstrong jobs growth\u201d but made no comment on its other findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince 2014 the number of Tasmanians in work has grown by more than 51,000 people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTasmania has the lowest unemployment rate in the country and our government is working to keep it low.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn doing so, we can give businesses confidence, backing Tasmanian jobs and keeping our economy growing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tasmania was the only Australian state to record negative economic growth in the latest quarterly report, prompting fresh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-242921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}