tassie stuffed, the nation next - abbott

Tasmania 'a vision of our gloomy future'
TASMANIA'S economic woes are a vision of Australia's future, says Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

The island state has been struggling of late with relatively high unemployment, and with its forestry industry in turmoil.

Mr Abbott said Tasmania's woes could soon be replicated on a national scale.

"What we've seen in Tasmania for large parts for the last couple of decades is a Labor-Green government," he told ABC Radio today. "We've now got a Labor-Green government nationally and I don't think our country can afford the kind of economic stagnation which sadly has afflicted Tasmania for much of the last couple of decades.

"Tasmania is, if you like, a vision of the future for our nation if this Labor-Green alliance persists."

Mr Abbott said the Greens were holding back development in Tasmania.

"Now there's a lot of fantastic things happening in Tasmania, there's a terrific tourism industry and it is a clean, green island in many respects," he said.

"But we still need economic development and that's the problem with these Labor-Green alliances.

"For all the decent Labor people that want to see development, the Green part of the alliance basically makes any major development, particularly any major industrial development, all but impossible."