Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It hasn't been an easy 12 months for many of us living across the north-west, the West Coast and King Island. Our region has been challenged like never before. This has been the first time for many of us in experiencing a global crisis on this scale. Right across Australia, governments are managing both a health pandemic and an economic challenge, and I want to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate the Tasmanian government for working with the Morrison government to keep Tasmanians safe and to minimise the financial impacts on families and businesses.

There is a lot, of course, to be done. It's easy to feel that, as an individual, we can't do much to help the nation rebound. Well, my message today is that there definitely is something we can do. No matter where you live in the electorate of Braddon—whether it's in the local government area of Burnie, Central Coast, Circular Head, Devonport, Latrobe, Waratah-Wynyard or West Coast—what we do, day in day out, has a huge impact on the speed in which we will recover and return to our treasured way of life.

With regard to the health crisis, it's about sticking to a plan, because the plan is working. People living in Braddon know as well as anybody what it means to be locked down. In fact, in April, we experienced the nation's first community lockdown, and I couldn't have been prouder of how our region responded. The rest of the nation looked on at how our government and our wonderful communities dealt with the crisis, and what that did for people in the region was incredible.

With regards to building our economy, it is about doing what we do best, and that is supporting locals and supporting local businesses. Why should we? Well, the North West, the West Coast and King Island produce pretty much everything you could ever want to buy. I read an interesting article the other day that said that, if every household spent $50 a week buying Australian made goods rather than buying the equivalent item produced overseas, this would mean an extra $30 billion to boost our economy. What's more, if everyone spent just $50 a week buying local items, thousands of jobs would be created right across regions like my own. Another study found that, if every Australian committed to spend $100 just once-off, a one-off purchase, and bought something that was locally made, this would create up to 3,000 jobs.

At a time when many Australians feel the economic recovery is out of their control, it is an incredibly powerful reminder of the importance of buying local. What is also exciting is the fact that you don't need to spend more. I know that many across the region still are doing it tough and that money is tight. All we need to do is to keep a look out for locally produced products, something that's grown in our region—or in the state of Tasmania in my case. If you can't find that, look for an Australian-grown product and, if it's comparable, then think about buying that instead of an overseas manufactured good. That's where the Australian Made, Australian Grown logo is important. This logo is Australia's only registered country-of-origin certification trademark. If you see it, you know it's 100 per cent Australian and you're buying authentic, premium quality Australian products that originate in our clean, green environment and meet the very strict Australian standards. So keep a look out for that symbol.

During the last year, many people, more than ever, moved to the top line of shopping. For years, online shopping meant that buying items from overseas was probably the norm; however, that is no longer the case. There are now dozens of online stores that are selling locally grown produce that's conveniently delivered to your door, including Tasmanian Shop, Shop Tasmania, Product of Tasmania, Tasmanian Gourmet Online, Buy Something Tasmanian, Buy from Tasmania—and the list goes on. Tasmania has become the first state in Australia to launch a dedicated Tasmanian-brand store on amazon.com.au. This will provide yet another way for our local producers to expand their businesses and their sales on the mainland and will enable more Tasmanian companies to enter the online retail trail.

So keep up the great work, everybody, and shop local. We all know that Tasmania is the envy of Australia when it comes to producing food. So keep it up and keep it local. I congratulate the Buy Local Campaign, a terrific campaign that's having results on the ground.

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