As a result Tasmania is an economic basket case with every economic indicator screaming the story of failure.

The population is stagnant. The lack of economic opportunities drives the most vibrant of the younger people to live elsewhere. The social and health indicators reflect the economic decline.

Alcohol dependence, obesity, smoking, domestic violence are all indicators of an economy in difficulty.

The indicators for education are equally depressing.

There is an unacceptable level of welfare dependency. Even worse is the acceptance of this as the social norm and that welfare dependency is a Tasmanian lifestyle.

It is a problem of the current Tasmanian culture. It has been perverted by green think. There is no value in dreaming in the wilderness.

Productive working is the meaning of life and creating value for the community is the most effective way of serving humanity. The recent example of a young girl being idolised by the media for being stuck up a tree to save the forest is a perversion. She needed counselling not adoration.

Tasmania has got it all wrong.

There are too many trees in Tasmania and too many national parks and preserved wilderness areas. The solution is not to abolish the excess of preserved land areas but to define national parks as they should be defined not as sacrosanct areas but as areas requiring the highest level of planning and environmental consideration.

This should free many areas for development and avoid environmental hysteria.

It is probably too late to backtrack on the decision to abort the development of the Franklin River but at least we can regret the decision and the hysteria that surrounded that debate. It was the beginning of an anti-development phase in Tasmania's life.

The urgent thing to do is to get rid of the current Labor-Green government. They should be removed but removed so convincingly and with such community conviction that never again will Tasmania face such a disaster.

Something also needs to be done about the bloated bureaucracy in Hobart. If we were making sensible decisions Hobart would never have been made the Tasmanian capital. It is on the wrong end of the island and faces the Antarctic and not the vibrant economy of Victoria. It may not be possible to change this but at least it should be open for discussion.

Tasmania needs a new beginning. The recent election of a federal Abbott government will provide the basis for a new beginning. I have read the proposal for an economic plan for Tasmania produced by the federal Liberals and the Hodgman team.

It is titled the Coalitions Economic Growth Plan for Tasmania. It draws attention to the resources of Tasmania and in particular forestry, fisheries tourism and agriculture. Over recent years these have become pariah industries.

I have watched with astonishment as taxpayers' money has been handed out to deliberately destroy jobs in the forest industry and viable communities have been destroyed to please the whims of trendy greenies.

It is a good document and deserves to be implemented. Tasmania cannot afford to wait.

I would add one positive proposal. As minister for education I was largely responsible for the creation of the Northern campus of the University of Tasmania and I am proud of that.

There is now a new opportunity to build on that. The Abbott government has eased the restrictions on overseas students. There is an opportunity for Tasmania to become an international centre for tertiary education.

- NEIL BATT is chief executive of the Australian Centre for Health Research. He has variously been deputy premier, treasurer and opposition leader in Tasmania and national president of the ALP. He has also been resident director for transport company TNT in Western Australia and Victoria; chairman of Airlines of Western Australia; chairman of CSL and chairman of Heine Management Limited. He has also been a trustee and treasurer of the National Gallery of Victoria and was for many years a director of the Australian Opera.