{"id":892551,"date":"2026-09-15T06:12:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T06:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892551\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T06:12:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T06:12:23","slug":"tasmania-falls-to-last-in-latest-commbank-state-of-the-states-economic-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892551\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasmania falls to last in latest CommBank State of the States economic report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tasmania has ranked last in CommBank’s latest State of the States economic report, a significant decline from four years ago when it repeatedly topped the ranking.<\/p>\n

The quarterly report<\/a>, produced by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, measures six economic indicators and compares states and territories’ performances to their decade average or norm.<\/p>\n

States and territories are measured on how much they have improved against themselves.<\/p>\n

The latest report ranks Tasmania at the bottom of the pack, where it has been for all of 2026.<\/p>\n

The report found the state has the highest unemployment rate in the country, up from 3.8 per cent a year ago to 5.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

Wage growth has slowed, and total labour income is slowing more than any jurisdiction except for Western Australia and the ACT.<\/p>\n

Business investment grew slightly, while investment in housing fell by 6.2 per cent.<\/p>\n

Public demand, which is government spending, ranks last, but the recent figures are distorted because of the purchase of the new Spirit of Tasmania vessels.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

The purchases of the new Spirit of Tasmania ships have impacted the state’s balance sheet. (Supplied: TT-Line)<\/p>\n

The only positive indicator was household consumption, which was up by 2.1 per cent, giving Tasmania its highest rank of fourth place.<\/p>\n

The report said this may be down to an older population that has paid off mortgages and is not impacted by rising interest rates.<\/p>\n

It also said there was a “clear risk” that the labour market deterioration eventually impacted household spending, describing the labour market as concerning.<\/p>\n

“Employment growth is so weak that even subdued labour-supply growth is not preventing unemployment from rising,” it said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The report found Tasmania’s population aged 15 and over grew just 0.7 per cent over the year \u2014 the slowest nationally. (ABC News: Jake Grant)<\/p>\n

Four years ago, Tasmania was regularly topping the State of the States report, and even when it did not land on top, it claimed top position in some performance indicators.<\/p>\n

The government marked these moments with media releases with titles such as “Tasmanian economy continues to grow under strong Liberal leadership” and “Tasmania’s economic resilience on full display”.<\/p>\n

“We have a clear plan and these outcomes are the result of the strong actions we have taken to rebuild our economy, providing a business-friendly, job-creating environment that encourages investment and promotes growth,” former treasurer Guy Barnett said in October 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Treasurer<\/p>\n

Eric Abetz went on to attack Labor’s performance when in government. (ABC News: Jake Grant)<\/p>\n

Referencing the Liberal government’s prior claims that the report “proved their economic plan was working”, Labor Shadow Treasurer Dean Winter said the latest CommBank report showed the opposite.<\/p>\n

“By their own test, today’s result proves their plan is failing,” Mr Winter said.<\/p>\n

“After 13 years, the Liberals have left Tasmania with the worst-performing economy in the country, rising unemployment, spiralling debt, and a downgraded credit rating.”<\/p>\n

He said the state was “experiencing an unprecedented economic and fiscal storm”.<\/p>\n

“We have not seen job losses like this since the global financial crisis,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But unlike that period, when economies across the country were slowing, Tasmania is now going backwards while other states continue to grow.”<\/p>\n

Hobart stadium, Launceston convention centre will bolster economy, Abetz says<\/p>\n

In a statement, Treasurer Eric Abetz said the economy “continues to be resilient despite persistent economic challenges nationally, including rising interest rates”.<\/p>\n

“When Labor was last in government, the unemployment rate had a 7 in front of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Since then, we have created more than 40,000 jobs and continue to invest in job-creating projects.<\/p>\n

“Our economic resilience was reflected in the latest NAB Quarterly Business Survey, which ranked Tasmania first among the states for both business conditions and business confidence.”<\/p>\n

He said the government’s significant investment in projects such as the Hobart stadium and Launceston Convention Centre will ensure the economy remains resilient “in the face of economic headwinds”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tasmania has ranked last in CommBank’s latest State of the States economic report, a significant decline from four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7171,64,63,1480,99,51494,25963,462026,164,462025,25960,2801,4847],"class_list":["post-892551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-abetz","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-budget","tag-business","tag-commbank","tag-commsec","tag-economic-report","tag-economy","tag-state-of-the-state","tag-state-of-the-states","tag-tasmania","tag-unemployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892551","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=892551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}