Make Tasmania a clearer, faster and more competitive place to invest

Private investment is the principal driver of long-term economic growth. It enables businesses to start and expand, adopt technology, enter new markets and create jobs. This includes investment by existing Tasmanian businesses, as well as new investment by domestic and international entrants. Tasmania's business investment per capita remains around 60 per cent of the national average, and lifting it is central to the Strategy's economic ambition.

Tasmania has built genuine capability in attracting and facilitating investment. The Office of the Coordinator-General has facilitated more than $5.3 billion of investment between 2014-15 and 2024-25, and Tasmania has made significant progress modernising its planning system, including through the Statewide Planning Scheme and ongoing work across the Resource Management and Planning System. In 2025, the Business Council of Australia ranked Tasmania the second-best state in which to do business.

The next decade will demand more. Tighter fiscal conditions and sharper competition for national and global capital mean the jurisdictions that offer the clearest proposition, the fastest pathways and the most coordinated government response will win the investment Tasmania needs.

Building on the foundations already in place, this Strategy proposes two complementary directions:

A clearer, more compelling proposition for all investors

In a changing global environment, it is opportune to refresh Tasmania's value proposition for all investors (both existing businesses and startups) and the way government supports them. This means ensuring our pitch is contemporary and Tasmania-specific, that facilitation supports are in place from first contact through delivery, and that points of accountability for investors are clear and consistent.

The government’s investment facilitation activities will remain central to this work, alongside the Tasmanian Development Board's functions and Tasmania's broader trade and investment effort. Sharper sector and regional investment prospectuses, aligned to this Strategy's priorities, will help investors and Tasmanian businesses see where opportunity lies and how government will support it.

A more integrated pathway for major investment

For larger projects of strategic economic significance, current legislative pathways involve overlapping regulatory processes without a truly integrated framework, creating uncertainty around timelines, assessment requirements and decision-making authority. Beyond major projects, planning settings do not always distinguish between the significance of different types of development, meaning investment aligned with state priorities can face complex approval pathways. Environmental, heritage and other regulatory approvals add further complexity.

Tasmania operates at a different scale and in a different market context from larger jurisdictions, but lacks comparable mechanisms to prioritise and coordinate major projects across government or to address sequencing issues that delay delivery. Targeted reform, designed for Tasmania's context, would strengthen investment confidence and enable priority projects to proceed more efficiently.

The Tasmanian Government’s Economic Statement committed to a new Economic Future Act for the purposes of delivering a clearer, faster pathway for major job-creating projects. The approval and regulatory environment should work for investors — meaning clearer standards, and processes that move faster to yes, or faster to no.