Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

All right: the minister is squawking at the table. Do you remember, Deputy Speaker, when this country was headed to rack and ruin because of a debt and deficit emergency? That's what this government came to government with. After five years of Liberal government, the debt's doubled to more than half a trillion dollars, but apparently it's not an emergency anymore. It's worse than when it was an emergency, but it's not an emergency anymore. The Liberals love rolling out the debt truck under Labor, but now that the debt has more than doubled under their stewardship the debt truck is nowhere to be seen. Maybe the axle has broken under the extra weight.

The deficit for this year is more than six times that which the Liberals forecast in their 2014 budget and yet they want us to trust that their forecasts for the next four years of growth are bang on target. This government's economic failures are manifest, and nowhere are they worse than in Tasmania. After five years, this government has left Tasmania completely off the map. It's only discovered us again in recent weeks. There's a by-election on—fancy that! Last year's so-called infrastructure budget had nothing new for Tasmania. There were billions of dollars in projects for other states; nothing for Tasmania. This latest budget is not much better, but at least this time we crack a mention in the papers. There's money for the Tamar River in Launceston. It doesn't kick in for two years. There's money for a new Bridgewater Bridge, but nowhere near enough has been budgeted to complete it. That's going to take at least another election cycle. There's money for roads, but the Liberals don't know which roads, nor how much they'll need. It's all pie in the sky. They couldn't even get their 2016 election promise right. Both Labor and the Liberals pledged to build a new Hobart airport intersection on Tasman Highway. It's two years after that promise and work hasn't even begun, and now we're told it's unlikely to be completed until 2022. That is six years for an intersection. It does not fill me with hope that the Bridgewater Bridge will be completed within a decade.

The north-west is suffering too. This government cut $58 million from the University of Tasmania, which has a Cradle Coast campus in the city of Burnie. The last thing the people of Burnie need is less investment in their city. They need a government and a local member willing to stand up for Burnie's young people to ensure they have an opportunity at a great education, because when you cut funding to regional universities you close down pathways for young people who live in the regions. You can't help but be cynical. Two years ago, Labor backed the Cradle Mountain tourism project, but the Liberal MP Brett Whiteley didn't. Now, with a by-election on, the Liberals say they back the project. Hallelujah—they've found the light! But the Liberals are interested only in themselves, not the people of Braddon. The people of Braddon know that the only person who's fighting for them, day in and day out, and has been doing it for the past two years, is Justine Keay, and that's why she deserves to come back to this House.

See this speech in context