Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Whilst I certainly agree with the member for Lyons when it comes to irrigation and the bipartisanship the irrigation schemes have seen in Tasmania, I want to draw the attention of the House to a document that I came across when I was looking at exactly what the members for Lyons, Bass and Braddon have delivered for Tasmania. I came across this little gem: Economic growth plan for Tasmania. Running through the document, I came across a whole range of interesting projects that the Liberal Party, prior to the last election, committed to deliver to Tasmania. Interestingly, as you run through the document, you can see it is quite a failed list. It is interesting because the member for Bass was in here going on about how great it is and how they have delivered on it, but when I read through the document all I find is a whole heap of broken promises.

The Major Projects Approvals Agency was established in July 2014 by the government. It is true—they did establish it—but it has not done anything at all. What was it supposed to do? It was supposed to make it easier for projects to occur that would invest a minimum of $50 million in new fixed capital in Tasmania before 2020. We have not seen anything occur at all by the Major Projects Approval Agency to date. The second item was the Tasmanian jobs plan. They were going to fund a payment of $3,250 to a Tasmanian business and create up to 2,000 jobs. It was such a failure—it was administered, of course, by Senator Abetz, the former Minister for Employment—that they had to double the subsidy. They cancelled it and put it into their wage subsidy pool because it was such a failure. It actually spent more on advertising itself as a program than it did on actual wage subsidies. That is how much of a failure it was.

If we keep going down the list, there is $38 million to expand the Hobart airport. This week we saw that they have only allocated just over $1.5 million, or thereabouts, to the $38 million for the project. According to Senator Abetz, construction was supposed to start last year—a two-year construction period creating 200 jobs. It has not even started yet and, indeed, we do not expect it to start this year. We saw the Midland Highway commitment for which they allocated $400 million—which amounts to $100 million being ripped out from Labor's commitment on the Midland Highway—as part of the economic growth plan. We saw a commitment to relocate federal government agencies to Tasmania and, of course, that has not happened. Instead, the Oceans and Atmosphere office of CSIRO has been threatened in Hobart. There are only 300 CSIRO employees in Tasmania and about 200 of them work in this office, and they still do not know what their future is. So the coalition's plan for Tasmania has been an abject failure and it has not been delivered on.

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