I am born and bred Tasmanian and unfortunately I have to live and work away from my family for 5 weeks at a time due to the nature of my industry. I could do the same job closer to home but for 50k a year less and mind numbing boredom to follow suit, whereas I choose to somewhat sacrifice family time (I get 5 weeks completely off after my 5 weeks at work) to challenge myself mentally with more career opportunities.
Having worked in and around most states in Australia and some time overseas at different periods during my career, I am sad to say that Tasmania is in a pretty fucked state at the moment.
On the whole, all sides of government (both state and federal) are acting like spoilt brats, standing in parliament for the world to see and calling each other witty indirect names and then in the next sentence they complain about the escalation of bullying in schools! All sides of the government need to be reset and actually do what they are employed, by us tax payers, to do, and that is act in the best interest of the community. Many politicians have vested interests in policies in an indirect manner and this trumps community needs every time.
The large problem in our community here, and I suspect in pockets on the mainland, is that the new generation (I am 32 years young) expect everything now and they don't want to do the hard yards to earn it. I am seeing it in my industry, young people that are fresh out of high school expecting to do it all straight away. It doesn't work like that and the sooner you pull your head out of your arse the quicker you will be able to do it all. Knuckle down and work hard. In Tas, this is rife and this is where I feel some of the hostility LRG has experienced has come from (unsure of your line of work LRG) and with the currently employment state here, will only be worse.
Education is key. At present, we are letting people out of the education system only to generate another generation of people who are not willing to put in the hard yards.
Forestry in Tas will always be a sore subject. I was fortunate enough to build my house entirely from timber milled from a local mill before they were forced to close. Selective logging is the answer but neither side wish to show any form of compromise and you end up with a really nasty stalemate that everyone suffers from. I do watch the news but I do not read the newspaper (mostly because there is nothing of interest in there!). If I do get interested in a story, then i research it for myself due to the fact the media is increasingly a one sided coin, whichever way that coin drops.
As for the state of Tas, I would not live anywhere else on the planet....... I can live anywhere in Australia being a FiFo, but I choose Tas. My brother attended uni for 5 years doing 2 degrees, worked in Sydney and Canberra and then moved back to Tas to work and live. Same story with my sister, worked in Melbourne and then moved back to do same job. It is a beautiful state with many opportunities, but people need to put into the community to get back from it.
My partner has been fortunate enough to not have to work the last 5 years while raising our daughter, and now she is at the stage where she is thinking of re-entering the workforce..... but she doesn't want to because there are people in the community that need the work more than she. Then on the other side of the coin, there are people in the community that don't want the work at all!
I have more points of view but can't be arsed going back through the thread to highlight them all. If you are thinking of coming down here for a holiday or to take residence, by all means please do. At the end of the day, if you contribute to the community in a positive way, then you a re welcome here.
One last point...... single minded points of view about Tas and all the incest, two headed jokes give rise to "The only reason Tasmanians have two heads is so when they go to the main land, they have someone decent to talk to!" (not all mainlanders are tainted with the same brush!).
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