WHEN I think about my vision for Tasmania, I am drawn to my time at Cadbury in Hobart.
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The factory was under- performing and the operation was under intense scrutiny.
My task was to help drive cost- efficient reform, against a background of long-serving, loyal, competent employees and advantages like availability of milk for processing at the Cooee milk factory
My mantra was: if you can't make it happen in Tasmania you can't make it happen anywhere.
But how to do it? I needed to build trust and harness the wealth of knowledge and experience of the workforce.
I devised the urgent changes required to be made under a broad policy, which I termed "common purpose".
After a slow start and with some painful redundancies, efficiencies were achieved, investment started to flow, an employee share scheme was introduced and corporate citizenship took on a much more noticeable profile.
The Cadbury marathon had its 30th running early this year.
None of this would have happened without the expertise of employees and a goodwill to achieve real productivity gains.
When I became a Tasmanian industrial commissioner, I applied the philosophy of working together, such as helping to facilitate and restructure activities in business.
We achieved good outcomes for Tasmania, promulgated by advocates like Terry Edwards, Paul Lennon, the late Jim Bacon, Clive Willingham and Tim Abey, to mention but a few.
It was fantastic to see the co- operation, and in my opinion Tasmania could do with a good dose of "common purpose" right now.
There are so many things that unite us, but things that divide us are stark and have caused deep social divisions.
We need economic activity and to leverage our assets.
We are seeing patches of this with tourism and our emerging industries, but for the life of me I can't understand why we led ourselves down the pathway of a diminishing forestry industry or why we argue over mining.
Our exports are crippled by the cost of freight.
Why are the inherent anomalies in the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme allowed to remain?
Nonsensical arrangements exist, such as if Tasmanian products are processed in Victoria or elsewhere on the mainland it attracts an $850 freight subsidy for each container shipped between here and Melbourne, yet those who process here do not get this subsidy.
The very legitimate question is: why process here for export markets? Why not process out of the state?
We need to fix this ludicrous situation, or we stand to lose industries that do process here.
If we lose those industries we also lose investment and employment.
Our exporters to international markets are excluded from the TFES altogether, but $14.5million was allocated predominately for Tasmanian exporters consequential to the loss of direct shipping from Tasmania, and this was only part of the additional cost incurred for one year,
You can easily see the cost disadvantages for exporters. No wonder some have given up.
We need to engage more with our highly skilled metal fabricating and engineering industries.
We have great expertise and we should find ways of leveraging this.
I am excited about the University of Tasmania, the Menzies Centre and the wonderful research it is undertaking.
But, we have a chronic literacy and numeracy issues, our retention rates are abysmal, our young and brightest are leaving and our participation rate is not only static but the age profile is increasing.
I do admit to some sense of, maybe not panic, but frustration.
I want to see recognisable policies to fix the problems.
As a member of the TasTAFE Board, which commences formally from July 1, I am very confident that the board - under the leadership of chairwoman Kathryn Thomas and new chief executive Stephen Conway - will be able to enhance accredited learning outcomes and to build on the engagement with the many stakeholders .
But it goes further than that.
We need to engage with a cultural change.
We need to recognise that the majority of us want to see a balanced approach to development.
Everyone is sick of the debates and fighting a war of attrition.
Tasmania deserves better. It is not the plaything of elite or disparate groups.
To me, a love of Tasmania is a foundation plank that we can all build on to achieve what I hope will not be a mythical commitment to a common purpose.
Tasmania deserves it.
Bob Gozzi is a former personnel manager of Cadbury Schweppes.
A former state industrial commissioner, he is the convenor of the Bell Bay Industry Group, the Tasmanian Exporters Group and operates Bob Gozzi Business Consulting.