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

It's the morning after the budget, and what a disappointment it is for Tasmanians. Nothing in the budget from last night, that fizzer of a budget, makes up for a decade of attacks on wages, job security and Medicare. Tasmania has been left off the map completely—literally left off the map. The signature regional piece in that budget last night was the $7 billion for priority infrastructure, and Tasmania doesn't crack a mention. Not one dollar of regional priority infrastructure spending will be spent in Tasmania. It's an absolute disgrace.

There's the $100 million that's been slated for the Great Eastern Drive, the Tasman Highway in my electorate—and I of course welcome any dollars that comes my electorate—but you pore through those budget papers and there's no detail of when that spending will occur. There's no detail of when that $100 million will arrive. What we know from previous iterations of this government with the way it's handed down previous budgets is that that money will be in the never-never. They've announced funding before for roads in my electorate and in my state, and it's all in the never-never. It's all off beyond the forwards. I challenge this government to tell us when they're going to spend this $100 million in my electorate to improve the Tasman Highway. It doesn't need that funding in three years, four years or five years; it needs it now.