Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

As my fellow Tasmanian senator will understand, the Tasmanian economy finds itself in recession thanks to 16 years of state Labor governments, complemented by a Green-Labor government at the very end, and that was complemented further by a federal Labor government of six years, which was a Green-Labor government for the last three years. I would therefore say with respect to the honourable senator that visiting all the economic woes that Tasmania is currently suffering on the current federal government that has only been in power for nine months is not a proposition that I would endorse.

Having said that, I absolutely share with the senator a commitment to do the very best for our home state of Tasmania. That is why we had a special package for Tasmania at the last federal election. The package included infrastructure, including support for tourism infrastructure; the Dial Blythe irrigation scheme in the north-west of the state, from where Senator Lambie comes; and a Tasmanian jobs package to assist employers to put more Tasmanians into employment. So we have had a very comprehensive policy to assist our home state of Tasmania. In relation to the proposition to give an extra $5,000 million to Tasmania over four years, it is not a proposition which we can entertain at this time given that, as we speak, we are borrowing $1,000 million a month from overseas just to pay the interest on the existing borrowings.