Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I have to say I am divided; I have mixed emotions. Part of me would like to side with Labor and condemn the Turnbull government for their lack of achievement. There have been some achievements for Tasmania, which I will speak to shortly, but there is still a bad taste in my mouth over the dishonest way the Liberals conducted their election campaign.

Everyone will remember that the Liberals were complaining about the lies and unfair comments being made about their health policy, but the reality is that they deserved every bit of that criticism. In Tasmania right now the public health system is in utter chaos and near failure, not because of the great efforts of our nurses, doctors and paramedics but because of the negligent management provided by state Liberal ministers and their senior bureaucrats.

While the Liberals were complaining about so-called Labor lies, the Tasmanian Liberal Party director, Sam McQuestin, told barefaced lies in newspapers about JLN voting preferences. During the election campaign I had—I state again—an open ticket. Despite what the Tasmanian Liberal Party director, Sam McQuestin, said during the election campaign, at no stage did the JLN ever preference any political party on its how-to-vote cards. But it is not unusual for Liberal Party state directors to be dishonest, is it? Who could forget the performance of former Tasmanian Liberal Party executive Damien Mantach, a proven liar and close colleague of Sam McQuestin, who, as the state director for Victoria, was found guilty of theft after he embezzled $1.5 million in party funds. Mr Mantach was also found guilty of deception to gain political advantage. According to an ABC report:

Mr Mantach was forced to resign after using a party credit card for $48,000 worth of personal expenses.

The report also said:

Tasmanian Liberal Party state director Sam McQuestin will not resign over the handling of former director Damien Mantach's resignation in 2008.

The Sam McQuestin mentioned in this ABC news report of 28 August 2015 is the same Sam McQuestin and Tasmanian Liberal Party director who told blatant lies to the media and Tasmanians about my voting preferences.

The fact that this man has been allowed to remain the Tasmanian Liberal Party state director just goes to show what sort of leadership controls the Liberal Party in Tasmania has. It also shows why we need a federal anti-corruption body established as soon as possible. Mr McQuestin, like all high-ranking Liberals and Prime Minister Turnbull, opposes a federal ICAC. I will let Tasmanians draw their own conclusions on that. In the first 100 days since the election a federal ICAC should have been established.

For Tasmania, the Liberal government made 21 election promises totalling $3.138 billion, including $2 billion in funding for Tasmanian hospitals over the next four years and $150 million for the relocation and northern expansion of the University of Tasmania campus. The key question that I have put to the PM and his ministers is: when will these promises be delivered?

I am happy to say that my strong opposition to the Liberals' university deregulation plans—and, of course, Labor's—was vindicated when Prime Minister Turnbull signed an MOU with the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania for $150 million. Many people will recall that I received the blame from Liberal Party members for Tasmania missing out on university funding or investment after I voted down the former government's plan to deregulate our unis. With the formal signing of the MOU, my stance has been formally vindicated. Tasmania now has an extra $150 million in uni investment without our uni students facing the prospect of $100,000 degrees.

Tasmania's St Helens community has been working for three years to win the right to have HMAS Tobruk relocated to its waters and scuppered.    Tasmania is the only state that does not have an ex-naval ship as a dive site. Three states have been gifted, on average, $5.3 million to relocate and scupper former naval ships. Tasmania wants the same deal as those other states. The project would deliver a positive economic impact of at least $5 million per year extra and up to 16 new jobs in the dive tourism industry on the east coast. That equates to $50 million over a decade. I would like to hear that Tasmania has been successful in its application. That is about the only thing I am waiting for, and it would be a real morale boost for Tasmanians to have, for the first time, a former naval ship, HMAS Tobruk, sunk in Tasmanian waters.