What is it with the New Tassie?
For example, the August 2004 quarterly Sensis Business Index found Tasmanian small and medium sized businesses had the highest level of confidence in the country. Furthermore, the survey marked the 16th time out of the previous 18 quarters that Tasmanian business confidence exceeded the national average. The survey also found that of all the states and territories, Tasmanian businesses were the most supportive of their respective government’s policies. The main reason cited by businesses for supporting the state government was “getting the economy going”. Tasmania’s economic resurgence has come at a time when the state also has experienced significant cultural changes. In particular, Tasmania has gone from a noted bastion of homophobia, where sodomy was still illegal until the early 90s, to a world leader in the legal recognition of same-sex couples (under the state’s ground-breaking Significant Relationships framework). Indeed, the late former Premier Jim Bacon argued that the economi
