Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tasmanians, including those in Braddon and Bass, will always be better off under a federal Labor government. I make this statement on some very simple economic foundations.

Under a Shorten Labor government the vast majority of Tasmanians will pay less income tax. Under Labor's better, fairer tax plan, Tasmanian workers with incomes between $48,000 and $90,000 will be $900 better off, which is undeniably better than the tax cuts offered by the Turnbull government. The government's second round of tax cuts to high-income earners won't help Tasmanian businesses because the majority of Tasmanians won't get it and, therefore, won't be able to spend it on Tasmanian businesses. Tasmanians have earned less than taxpayers in other states; annual average earnings are slightly more than $53,000, and the median annual income is less than $30,000. Under Labor, larger tax cuts for lower- and middle-income earners mean more disposal income for Tasmanians to spend in their local Tasmanian businesses. More than 13,000 Tasmanian businesses will see no benefit from the $80 billion handout to big business. Of more than 2,800 businesses in Bass, just nine businesses will see any of it.

Under a Labor government, Tasmanian schools and hospitals will be better off. Labor will invest in Tasmanians' health and education as a priority, instead of handing out over $80 billion to big business and the banks. My electorate of Bass shares the northern coastline with the electorate of Braddon, where my friend and colleague Justine Keay is working hard to be re-elected because she knows that Braddon will be better off under Labor. Tasmanians remember all too well the Liberal promise that there would be no cuts to hospitals in 2013. What they do not know is that Liberals tore up the intergovernmental agreement which bound the Commonwealth to bear 50 per cent of the increased cost in health. What have we had since? Four years of cuts and neglect from not one but two prime ministers, and now Tasmania's public hospitals are in crisis as federal funding fails to keep up with increased health costs. Under the Liberals the cuts to our hospitals are putting workers at the LGH and North West Regional Hospital under pressure, and the lives of northern Tasmanians are at risk. The Prime Minister and his Liberal government are cutting $715 million from 2017 to 2020, including $1.9 million from the LGH in my electorate and $730,000 from the North West Regional Hospital in Braddon. This is a disaster for northern Tasmanians. Justine Keay, as Labor candidate for Braddon, will fight for our public health system in Tasmania. I will not rest in ensuring that health, education and, of course, the lives of ordinary Australians are supported in Bass.