Prepared Statement of paul mallett

Northern Young Professionals Network Candidate Forum | 18 September 2026

Thank you for the opportunity to join you and take part in this conversation about Launceston’s future.

The Northern Young Professionals Network represents something important: people choosing to build their lives and careers here and bringing their skills, energy and ambition to our region.

Young people should be able to train, work, create and stay in Launceston. And if they leave to pursue opportunities elsewhere, we should give them every reason to return.

When I talk about building a more vibrant city together, this is what I mean:

1. Build the care workforce that keeps the rest of our economy working;
2. Build the next generation; and
3. Build the big things that can create opportunity for decades.

1. BUILD THE CARE WORKFORCE

More than 11,000 local jobs, or almost one in every four jobs in Launceston, are in the care economy. This includes early learning, disability, aged care, allied health, mental health and community services. Care is not simply a service people use when something goes wrong. It is the workforce that enables other workforces to function.

Without an early learning educator, a parent may be unable to work. Without an aged care worker, somebody may have to step out of employment to care for an ageing mum or dad. Without disability and community service workers, people can be denied the support they need to participate fully in the life of our city.

So let’s position Launceston as Northern Tasmania’s care workforce training hub.

Council can use its convening power to bring TasTAFE, the University of Tasmania, registered training organisations, employers, community organisations and governments around one table. Each holds part of the picture. Working together, they can build the workforce pipeline our region needs now and urgently needs to grow.

A workforce report is not a workforce pipeline. Workers cannot be trained in the weeks before they are needed. They must be trained years in advance, and we must start now.

Train people here. Employ them here. Keep them here. And if they leave, give them a reason to return.

2. BUILD THE NEXT GENERATION

In 2024, more than a quarter of all children in Launceston started school developmentally vulnerable on one or more measures. That was above both the Tasmanian and national rates.

These children are no less capable, talented, creative or ambitious than their more advantaged peers. Too often, they have fewer buffers around them: less access to transport, tutoring, equipment, professional networks and second chances. Early gaps can become later gaps. By young adulthood, almost one in four Tasmanians aged 15 to 24 is not fully engaged in work or study.

That is why I propose that Launceston pilot a City Deal for Kids. Launceston people already know what a City Deal looks like. They can walk through one. Now we should explore what that same level of shared commitment could achieve for our children.

A City Deal for Kids would provide a cradle-to-career commitment that starts early, holds the gains, protects the transition into high school and keeps pathways into further education, training and work open. A strong start that is not sustained is early investment squandered.

Evidence suggests that every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood programs for disadvantaged children can return between seven and thirteen dollars over a child’s lifetime. Investing early is ethically right and economically sensible.

This is not about lowering the bar. It is about refusing to lower the horizon. If we want the workforce of ten or twenty years from now, we have to invest in the children growing up here today.

3. BUILD THE BIG THINGS AND BUILD PEOPLE WITH THEM

The third opportunity is to harness splash and ripple economics. The splash is the build: the investment, jobs, trades, apprenticeships and local procurement here and now. The ripple is what that investment gives back for the next decade, the next generation and the next century.

A freshwater Tamar Lake could be far more than a beautiful waterfront. It could strengthen water security, irrigation, agriculture, industry and tourism, while helping turn the river back into the heart of our city. A weir and floodgate system could also offer significant flood mitigation potential, helping protect Launceston from the human and economic consequences of a major flood.

A second Tamar crossing could move a city, not just cars. It could improve freight movement, reduce congestion, open new development opportunities and create a better-connected Launceston.

But my question is also: who gets to build these projects? If we make generational investments in infrastructure, they should leave behind more than concrete and steel. They should leave local apprentices, qualified tradespeople and young people who received a genuine first opportunity.

Build the project. Build the workforce. Build social mobility.

A VIBRANT CITY WHERE OUR PEOPLE GROW WITH IT

So when I talk about building a more vibrant city together, that is what I mean. Build the care workforce. Build the next generation. Build the big things that can set up our people and this place for the next 100 years.

Council cannot deliver these ambitions alone. But Council is not a bystander. Council and the Mayor have convening power, a planning role, an evidence base and a voice. They can bring business, education, community organisations and governments together around shared priorities.

That is the approach I would bring: practical, collaborative and ambitious for our city and its people.

A more vibrant city is not just busier. It is not just bigger. A more vibrant Launceston is a city where more people have the opportunity to grow with it. You can explore my policy ideas further at vibrantnation.au Thank you.