By Minister for Building and Construction Sarah Courtney

Tasmania’s building and construction sector is going from strength to strength.

The extraordinary momentum in the industry is also helping to underpin broader economic confidence statewide.

It is shaping up to be another great year for the industry in 2019, but these results have not happened by accident.

The Hodgman Liberal Government has been working hard to ensure we have the right conditions in place to stimulate more construction, create jobs and boost the economy.

These strong results have been achieved in partnership with the entire industry, which has shown hard work and dedication in responding to this optimism with investments growing strongly across the commercial, residential and industrial sectors.

Building and construction jobs are at industry highs with more than 23,000 Tasmanians currently working in the sector.

We are cutting red tape and continually working with industry to further streamline processes to make it easier, faster and cheaper to build in Tasmania.

The increase in the total value of building approvals achieved the highest growth rate in Australia in the year to November 2018, up 39 per cent, with the number of dwelling approvals increasing by 14 per cent over the same period.

The value of total completed construction work increased by 11.3 per cent to $2.9 billion in the year to the September 2018 quarter, nearly seven times higher than the national growth rate.

Importantly, this record growth is set to continue, with a 59 per cent increase in the value of engineering construction work commenced in the year to September 2019, and a near-doubling in the estimated value of work yet to be done to a year ago.

I am proud of these achievements and motivated to continue supporting growth by ensuring we have a skilled workforce which can meet the growing demand in Tasmania.

The success of this industry benefits all Tasmanians with more homes, better infrastructure and importantly, more jobs.