Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I implore the government to stop treating Tasmanians as second-class citizens. They continue to do this; they continue to leave Tasmania off the map. Of course, I am referring to Hobart being the only capital city airport in Australia that has no Australian Federal Police presence. We used to, but in 2014 the federal government withdrew the AFP from Hobart Airport. At the time we asked some questions of the government, the infrastructure department, the Office of Transport Security and the AFP—we asked everybody we could to get to the bottom of why the government had taken the Federal Police out of Hobart Airport. We didn't really get a satisfactory answer. Indeed, the only thing we got was that it was an AFP resourcing decision.

In light of recent events and everything that is happening and the fact Hobart is about to get a direct international link for freight and possibly in the future for passengers, we have been calling for the government to explain this decision, and we have been asking for a review of it. We have heard very little from the high levels of government, but it is pleasing to see that we finally got one of the Tasmanian Liberal senators to come out and say that we cannot risk security by leaving this port without any AFP protection. So there is at least an acknowledgement by one Liberal senator that there is an issue at Hobart Airport. But we have also had the police commissioner in Tasmania write to the commissioner of the AFP about this. The Premier has said that it is an issue, and the Tasmanian police minister has said that it is an issue. Everybody in Tasmania says we cannot have Hobart Airport there with an international freight link about to start, and international passenger flights probably occurring, and with everything that is happening at the moment, and not have an AFP presence. All you've got to do is go down to Hobart Airport and talk to the current security staff, who are contractors and doing a great job, and to the airport staff and the people who are trying to deal with the passengers down there, to hear that this is a really serious issue.

People are concerned about not having any permanent police presence at Hobart Airport at all. There is no permanent presence at Hobart Airport today at all, and this government needs to explain why that is the case. We understand that it is going to be reviewed in the review of all the airports that's happening at the moment in light of what we saw just a week or so ago. But what we actually need is the government to explain the original decision, what we need is a review of that original decision, what we need is some assurance to Tasmanians, and what we need is Malcolm Turnbull, as Prime Minister, to guarantee to people in Hobart going through that airport that they are safe. They need to be told that they are safe, that there will be a police presence at Hobart Airport, that the decision to remove police will be reviewed by the government, and that we'll get a decision fairly soon, hopefully, because this is concerning Tasmanians. It is not fair. We are continually left off the map by this government and we have had enough.