Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

It is extraordinary when an issue is affecting our home state of Tasmania that we have the so-called 'power senators' from Tasmania, who have all the senior positions in this government but they cannot get up to defend their decision to stand by and do nothing. They do absolutely nothing. To have people in this chamber today blaming the mining resource tax or the carbon tax for the closure of those mines is absolutely outrageous. When it comes to what Senator Colbeck has just said in relation to Labor's view of saving jobs, that it is about throwing money at it, that is unbelievable. We want an immediate injection of funds into that community and we want a long-term strategy to ensure that we can invest in the future and can invest in jobs.

Today in the House of Representatives we have Mr Brett Whiteley as the member for Braddon. We also have what are known as—they gave themselves the name—'the Three Amigos'. We have been waiting for the Three Amigos to ride into town in Tasmania and they have never arrived. What they should really be known as is 'the Three Stooges'. The problem is, they are not funny. The situation on the West Coast is not funny. On this side we have seen the action of Senator Urquhart and the shadow minister Julie Collins going on the front foot with this issue. Our representatives have been there talking to the community. We have been in contact with the unions.

I have regular contact with the Australian Workers Union, who are down there at the coal face listening to those workers. They have had to survive. They are not living on six months of half pay; they are trying to survive. We know and I would have expected that those opposite as Tasmanians would know their community and know how hard it is there in terms of unemployment. We have—