NTDC have undertaken a review of the region’s current population strategy. The key driver for this review was to help NTDC undertook a multi-stage investigation into an appropriate future focused population program for Northern Tasmania.
Stage 1 of the project, a review of the 2019 Population Taskforce Strategy for Northern Tasmania. This coincide with the release of the State’s new population policy framework in July 2024. NTDC engaged Tasmania Policy Exchange, UTAS to prepare a discussion paper on the region’s population challenges and opportunities.
View the Research Paper in more detail here.
Stage 2: The discussion paper released in September 2024 was designed as an evidence base to inform a regional leaders population forum held in October 2024. This population forum was attended by leaders from across the region and included representatives from state and local government, industry and community who came together to workshop and discuss initiatives to address the research findings.
Stage 3: Further consultation and enquiry identified and collated the excellent work being done at a local regional and state level. It also identified where an appropriate resourced Northern Tasmania NTDC’s Population Program 2025 could amplify those efforts.
This program drawing from key strategic partnerships, and driven by regional collaboration ideals focuses on 5 areas of change:
Clearly identifying ‘best prospects’ audience profiles to attract to our region for work and lifestyle opportunities. Working closely with Brand Tasmania, and drawing from their extensive research on ‘new Tasmanians’ NTDC will support those seeking to attract and recruit international and inter-state residents – with the shared ideal of improving long-term retention rates.
Critical to retaining ‘new Tasmanians’ is their integration into host communities, both in the city and in regional centres.
NTDC will support existing and new partners committed to expand on their efforts to support new Tasmanians. In many areas initiatives are localised and supported by local leaders, in other areas formal programs don’t exist. Through working with local councils, NTDC will better identify with support is needed, as well as good examples shared between communities.
A key part of this approach is promoting pride in local communities. To that end NTDC is advocating for a ‘Tassie Friendliest Town’ campaign centred on celebrating those towns actively welcoming new Tasmanians.
Northern Tasmania as with many regions in Australia currently faces a shortage of child care facilities and services in regional centres. This is a critical barrier to attracting working age population cohorts desperately needed. As our population ages at differing rates in different towns, the need for daily care is anticipated to escalate over the next ten years.
NTDC is advocating for funding to better anticipate supply and demand inconsistencies across northern towns and determine appropriate built and/or service models to respond to forecasted scenarios across a 10 year horizon.
At the heart of our region is the City of Launceston. 46% of the region’s population lives in the city, yet 35% of those people’s place of work is outside of the city boundaries. This co-dependency is consistent across all seven municipality areas, at fluctuating levels.
The nature of workforce needs is set to evolve across the next 10 years driven by technology changes, the rise of renewable and associated industry sectors, base-loaded by primary and traditional industries. NTDC’s challenge is to better identify for regional communities their future workforce needs and economic drivers, to allow for better planning of both residential and commercial investment attraction.
A central premise of NTDC is Regional collaboration. This we enable through working with our seven Local Government Authority funding members.
With much of the heavy lifting of population attraction and retention being dependent upon local government support and community leadership, how these members are supported and celebrated is critical to our future success.
NTDC is facilitating a Northern Population Network comprised of key local government and strategic partners to work together and share insights and learning of ‘on the ground’ actions. This group will also allow NTDC to identity with programs are working as well as where new opportunities for broader population responses can be designed and/or road tested.