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

Tasmanians woke up yesterday to read what the new Prime Minister thinks of us. The foul-mouthed conversation he had with the Tasmanian Treasurer stripped away the spin and laid bare the ugly truth. This Prime Minister is a bully who does not care about Tasmania. We know he's not on our side, and in recent days we've had more proof. Our Bureau of Meteorology is being gutted, with forecasting services punted to the mainland. Plasterers at the Royal Hobart Hospital are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, and now their former employer has done a runner from the state, locking them out of their accommodation. Yesterday, an ad appeared on Facebook for what was described as 'a pretty sweet little gig' at a Hobart kitchenware shop, billed as a 'high-class thing', it requires two wait staff for two hours tomorrow. But there are no wages on offer. Instead, the lucky employees will each be given a $100 gift voucher to spend in store, because the store manager prefers to do it this way. Wow! Who needs to pay the rent when you can pick up a pretty sweet sandwich maker? Too bad you can't buy the bread because that requires actual money. Wage theft, hospital queues, banks and insurers who rip off customers—this is life for too many Australians under this divided and dysfunctional Liberal government.

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