Occasionally there will be some talk of Tasmania splitting from the rest of Australia and "going it alone", i.e. becoming independent. However, there is no organised independence movement, certainly none which has any large degree of support from the general public.
Tasmania's balance sheet shows that the state is dependant upon the commonwealth government for funding, i.e. that Tasmanians pay less in taxes than is distributed back to the state. The question of money is usually one of the first to be raised in talks of independence, and the most common proposal is for the government to do funny duty-free things to make Tasmania the Singapore of the south Pacific.
The last real talk of independence was by former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen around the time of the ill-fated Joh for PM campaign.
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Last reviewed 2006-08-05 17:39:54