Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you ever wanted to see rampant hypocrisy, you have just seen it from the member for Franklin. She comes into this chamber complaining about a 40c per tank rise in the fuel excise—an excise that Labor introduced. Yet the member for Franklin, with her Greens mates, votes against the repeal of the carbon tax, which would deliver $550 in savings to Tasmanian families. She comes into this chamber—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What rampant hypocrisy. She walks out of the chamber, the member for Franklin. What cowardice. She stands up here talking about savings for Tasmanian families and walks out of the chamber when I am about to tell her that, on 20 June, the front page of The Examiner said that if we repeal the carbon tax it will create an eight per cent reduction in electricity prices for Tasmanian families. So enough of the hypocrisy from those on the other side, in what is a very long Labor tradition.

On 11 June, Brendan O'Connor, the member for Gorton, paid a visit to Launceston—only a few weeks after the member for Jagajaga, Ms Jenny Macklin, also made a visit. Like the member for Franklin, they both came with a big bag of fake skeletons and scary spiders but with very few facts to share with my community. Like vaudeville shysters, their caravan rolled into town with its bile and confected outrage, serving no useful purpose but to scare the residents of my state. They were assisted in their nefarious activities by Senator Helen Polley, Senator for Tasmania.

The member for Jagajaga claimed during her visit that pensioner concessions would be cut which, understandably, created anxiety among the people of Tasmania. Yet Will Hodgman, the Premier of Tasmania, had made it clear that pensioners will continue to receive these concessions. He said, in an article in The Examiner on 30 May, that the Commonwealth contribution to these concessions was relatively minor and the state government would ensure there was no change to concessions from 1 July.

The member for Jagajaga also claimed that pensions would be cut from July, again knowing that was untrue and that her comments would cause anxiety. But do not believe me—I know those opposite are very fond of the ABC Fact Check organisation. Here is what Fact Check had to say about the member for Jagajaga's claims. They concluded that her claim about pension cuts was 'unfounded'. Here is what Fact Check said:

Ms Macklin's claim is unfounded.

And:

The Government is not cutting conditions for current age pensioners now or in the future.

It takes a very special form of bastardry to scare vulnerable people, but that is exactly the effect these untrue claims had. Where is the apology from the member for Jagajaga to our senior Australians? What does she say to the many Australians she misled with her mendacious claims? But there was no apology.

She was assisted in her propaganda by Launceston based Senator Helen Polley who authorised an article in last Saturday's The Examiner referring to changes to the GST. The problem with that is the government has explicitly said there will be no change to the GST—full stop, end of story. Senator Polley also claimed education was being cut, yet federal government funding to Tasmanian state schools will rise by 46.4 per cent over the next five years. Having authorised this advertisement, Senator Polley should reflect on why she is causing unnecessary anxiety among our constituency.

The member for Gorton had the audacity to bemoan the high unemployment rate in Tasmania. Why didn't he explain that unemployment in Tasmania, after 16 years of state Labor government and six years of a Labor-Greens government at the federal level, is the highest in the nation?

Both youth and adult unemployment rates are the highest in the nation, and we have the lowest participation rate in the nation.

These Labor politicians are all scare and no solution. They make no mention about the damaging economic legacy they left behind after six years at the federal level—$191 billion in achieved deficits, $123 billion in deficits across the forward estimates, gross debt rising to $667 billion a year, and we borrow a billion dollars every month just to pay the interest on our debt. So if those opposite are keen to talk to us about effects on people in our community, let them look within their own house and the appalling record they have created in the last six years, and stop scaring members of my community.