MPs converge on Midlands for business gabfest

The event held at the distillery in Perth, featured panel discussions of the state's most pressing economic and social issues, as well as question and answer panel with most of the Labor Opposition's front bench.

Treasurer Michael Ferguson kicked off the event, highlighting the state's recent economic performance, including higher than anticipated growth in state demand, and low unemployment.

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"We've seen some incredible positive growth in employment and with such strong employment numbers ... we are actually seeing a lot of money now circulating in our economy," he said.

"Unlike the period of time where I grew up in Tasmania ... businesses now go through lists of people on Facebook looking for people who might like to come in and try a job, because you've got jobs chasing people."

He praised the NMBA as a chamber of commerce that "punches above its weight in the halls of the Tasmanian parliament", and has assisted the government in its priority of cutting red tape and simplifying legislation.

"We've been through two rounds of red tape... and the next round will be about [cutting] red tape in the agri- food industry and for building standards like gin distilleries and whiskey distilleries like this one that we're in," he said.

He also said NMBA was one of the only chambers of commerce that has sought to tackle the issue of mobile phone coverage black spots.

"Deddington, Royal George and Lake Leake are now on the list [of areas to be prioritised to eliminate black spots]. Your members ... identified those and worked very closely with our state government to try to get some seed funding to stimulate a federal announcement," Mr Ferguson said.

Ian Goninon, chair of the NMBA, said his organisation would champion projects that enhance business activity in the midlands, including "the ongoing mobile phone black spot program, and promoting the [Launceston] airport's Translink precinct as Tasmania's premier business destination".

The NMBA's other priorities were influencing the policy and economic framework for businesses in Tasmania, including playing a role in devising small business regulation, the Tasmanian Sustainable Development Strategy and the Four-year Business Growth Strategy, he said.

Opposition treasury spokesman Shane Broad warned that the state is facing economic headwinds that could threaten the nascent growth of recent years.

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"We see certain indicators like employment bouncing from being the best in the country to being the worst in the country, so we've gone from 3.8 per cent [unemployment] and the last few years [it] was 4.9 per cent," he said.

"We're also seeing the budget situation in Tasmania deteriorate over time. The state debt was paid off in 2005, and what we see now is the state back in debt for the first time since then."

"We also see record budget deficits that don't appear to be going away and a budget bottom line that is looking at over $5 billion in debt. So just to put that in context, the government's budget plans to borrow three and a half million dollars every day, for the next four years."

He said cost of living was emerging as a key issue in Tasmania.

"Grocery prices are the biggest concern followed by the next one which is business power prices. And one thing that we've been pushing the government very hard on is capping power prices at two and a half per cent.

"We haven't had any luck yet with the government, but we'll keep pushing on that because power prices have gone up 12 per cent as of July 1."

Opposition leader Rebecca White said vocational education and training were important as a means of getting people into the workforce and to meet the demands in the economy for certain skills.

She said government's TAFE reform did not "fundamentally address the underlying structural problems, which is about lack of funding and resourcing, lack of recruitment and retention of good quality teachers, linkages to industry, and making sure those training packages are relevant to the demands that you are seeing every day in your business".

Steven Simeoni, principal director of construction company Tas City Building, reaffirmed business' fears over rising costs.

"Recently we've been pricing a lot of work, and a lot of jobs are overpriced, and people's expectations of what things should really cost aren't really in line with the actual cost in the new world," he said.

He pointed to rises in wages, the cost of living, fuel, electricity and freight as the main factors.

"I'm just worried about the future, that these extreme costs are going to - not ruin our business - but slow it down a little."

Northern Midlands councillor Dick Adams criticised the state's planning system that allowed the planning authorities to "give a tick to anything that councillors knock back".

"I know we've got a crisis in housing, but we are just not getting there, there's a lot of problems and small towns are getting ripped to pieces by unfair and unjust developments and a lot of people are losing their jobs and the feeling of their neighbourhoods."

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