Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I express my disappointment with Senator Guy Barnett, who has been spreading messages of doom and gloom to the people of north-eastern Tasmania, in my electorate of Bass. Without any confirmation, Senator Barnett expressed doubts about the Australian government’s commitment to the Defence food science and technology facility at Scottsdale. He was given a free run by the local paper, the Examiner, which did not even bother to contact my office to see whether Senator Barnett’s comments had been invented. Senator Barnett has also been backed by his friends at the Launceston Chamber of Commerce.

It is understandable why Senators Abetz and Parry managed to get Senator Barnett out of the Senate if this is symbolic of his performance within the Liberal Party. This must be Senator Barnett’s dying throw after eight years in the Senate and little to show for his time. Now he chooses to go out on a negative note, when there are so many positives in Bass. There are the BER projects in schools, the Dorset Trade Training Centre, a number of Active After-School Communities, school chaplaincy programs, as well as significant funding under the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program which saw jobs created in every town in the North East.

Senator Barnett’s actions in recent days, along with the member for Canning’s outrageous comments in this House yesterday, add up to the Liberal Party’s ongoing denigration of Tasmania and their corresponding failure in the polls.