Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was quite extraordinary. I will have to try to control myself. Never before has rural and regional Australia been so badly treated by this government. As the people who purport to represent regional Australia descend into chaos before our eyes, it is the people who live in regional Australia who are paying the price. It is little wonder that around this place the blue signs are appearing once again in office windows: 'Liberals for regions'. I think those signs say more about the National Party than they do about the Liberals.

It is the coalition that is failing regional Australia and my state of Tasmania. I am astonished that not one member on the other side has ever, ever, in my whole time in this place, talked about Tasmania with any knowledge at all. I'm not going to offer a map of Tassie; I'm sure the member for Lyons can do that. I guess it's because there's not one member over there from Tasmania. And that is because this government has trashed health, education, skills, biosecurity, infrastructure, the NBN, access to markets, and the list goes on for my state. Under this government there has not been one infrastructure project commenced in Tasmania. They cut $100 million out of the Midland Highway. They have not stumped up one extra cent in any budget for additional Tasmanian infrastructure.

I do welcome the return of Senator Colbeck to this place, but let's remember what he did as tourism minister for the state of Tasmania, his own state. At the last election, all he could find was $5 million for tourism infrastructure for Tasmania. When we have a tourism boom, he gives us a tourism bust. Absolutely extraordinary. For Cradle Mountain, the single biggest infrastructure project in tourism, he could only manage $1 million for a report for a $160 million project. When it comes to water infrastructure, which the Deputy Prime Minister likes to bang on about, not one new project has commenced, and every single water infrastructure project in Tasmania was started and completed by state and federal Labor governments.

Then, of course, there's the mythical $272 million Regional Growth Fund that the Deputy Prime Minister has gone missing on. Announced in last year's May budget with great fanfare, it's meant to provide grants of up to $10 million for major projects to support economic growth and create jobs in regions. The fund hasn't even opened up for applications, nine months after the budget. How typical this is of the Deputy Prime Minister—all talk, no action. In the Nationals party room they lurch from one regional development minister to the other, taking turns as to who the next minister will be. Three ministers in three months—not good enough!

But it gets worse. This government and Tasmania's Hodgman Liberal government have abrogated their responsibilities when it comes to protecting Tasmania's all-important brand. Under the watch of the former agriculture minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tasmania's reputation for being relatively pest and disease free has been put at risk. Our agricultural, horticultural and marine sectors have worked so hard to establish a national and international reputation for the Tasmanian brand, but we have seen Norwegian salmon on supermarket shelves, blueberry rust, Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome, and now a fruit fly emergency. Fruit is being dumped and farmers are locked out of markets. The Liberal Premier of Tasmania cut $1 million from Tasmania's biosecurity budget in his first term. The Prime Minister, aided and abetted by the Nationals, has abolished the COAG Standing Council on Primary Industries, failed to respond to the recommendations of the Plant Biosecurity CRC's fruit fly report and the Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity Review, and attempted to abolish the position of Inspector-General for Biosecurity. So much for standing up for regions and our farmers.

I could go on, but I have run out of time. I'll probably need another 10 hours to keep going on about how this government has failed not only people in regional Australia but in my whole state of Tasmania. The people of all electorates in Tasmania voted them out last time, and there is a good reason why. Labor here will make sure that regional communities in Tasmania will have the best result possible, and we need a Labor government to do that.

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