The 15 March state election delivered a decisive victory for the Liberal Party. We are keen to work as closely as possible with the incoming government to maximise the opportunities for local practitioners and level the playing field for all.

In the lead-up to the 15 March Tasmanian election, both major parties outlined plans for a stronger, more robust economy. The Liberal Party’s decisive win hands them the not insignificant challenge of turning around the state’s ailing fortunes.  In the months prior to the election, the Institute made a concerted effort to meet with both major political parties and seized every opportunity to get our message across. Just weeks before the poll, the now Premier acknowledged in a letter to the Institute that ‘architecture is vital to creating investment and development opportunities in Tasmania, to grow the economy and create jobs’. As a profession, it is this sort of acknowledgement that we have been fighting for and it is my hope that we can build on this and give our profession real hope for a brighter, more prosperous future. But, the challenge for us is to work to ensure that this acknowledgment translates into action from our new government. As we all know, in recent years, the benefits of good architecture have been increasingly overlooked in favour of short-term savings and other considerations. Among the Liberals’ pre-election promises was the plan to establish a high-powered Office of the Coordinator-General to act as a single point of contact for businesses interested in investing in Tasmania and to help facilitate major projects. In other moves aimed at stimulating the local industry and economy, they’ve also promised to introduce a Local Benefits Test and plan to disaggregate government contracts. These initiatives could help to address some of our concerns in relation to procurement and providing a level playing field for local practitioners, but there is still much work to be done. Even as the election drew closer, there were few policy initiatives aimed at supporting and promoting the creative arts, despite this important sector contributing more than $600 million a year to the state’s economy. As the dust settles on the election result and the new government gets down to serious business, we must redouble our efforts to consolidate the relationships we’ve started to build, and maintain and advance the message we need to get across. There is great potential ahead but the hard work is far from over.

Andrew Williamson
Tasmanian Chapter President