Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader (Tasmania)) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) and the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia (Senator Canavan) to questions without notice asked by Senators Singh and Urquhart today relating to the distribution of GST revenue and to funding for biosecurity measures in Tasmania.

We've already given this government ample opportunities through the course of this week to rule out, once and for all, that Tasmania and South Australia have anything to fear when it comes to their contribution of the GST being cut. The question asked today by Senator Singh referred to the revised estimates report to the Tasmanian Liberal government Premier, Mr Will Hodgman, which stated that our great state of Tasmania's budget was at risk and is at risk if this federal government cuts any distribution of Tasmania's share of the GST whatsoever.

It's important that we put this into perspective. What does it really mean for the people of Tasmania? The report refers to $168 million—$168 million is what this government is planning to cut from Tasmania's budget. What that means is that more than 1,611 teachers would have to be sacked in Tasmania. Twelve primary schools would have to shut. The health and hospital system is already in crisis in Tasmania. There would have to be a cut of 1,507 nurses. That's what it would equate to. That would be the real impact on Tasmania. We know there are about 1,334 police officers on the front line that would go. These are the priorities that this government has when it comes to the people of Tasmania. We know that the Prime Minister is still hurting and that he still wants to punish Tasmanians because they didn't vote for his weak team.

But what is really so disappointing is that you have the two senators from Tasmania, Senator Abetz and Senator Bushby, who were sitting there with their heads bowed, sitting on their hands saying absolutely nothing. It's not good enough for you go back around the communities in Tasmania and say, 'No, no, we won't do this; we will cross the floor. We won't take this. It's not going to happen.' But in this place they have had the opportunity, as they do every day, to talk to the Prime Minister; to talk to the Treasurer; to talk to the finance minister, Senator Cormann; and ask them to rule out emphatically once and for all that there would be no cut to Tasmania or to South Australia. But, no, we haven't heard one word from the Tasmanian Liberals. Now we know they're weak. We know they have no influence, because neither of the two that were in the chamber supported the Prime Minister when he rolled the former Prime Minister, Mr Abbott. So Tasmania's not getting the support and certainly not getting the representation that it deserves from the Liberals.

The other important issue facing Tasmania at the moment is fruit fly. Biosecurity is so critically important to Tasmania's reputation. It's taken years and decades to build up our international and national reputation for having clean green fantastic food, fantastic wine, fantastic berries. These industries are so important to the state's economy. And what have we seen from the Liberal state government under Will Hodgman? A million dollars cut from Tasmania's biosecurity in his first budget. They have been slack. The minister's taken his eye off the ball when it comes to biosecurity in our state. As I said, this is not just about the dollars that are going to be lost to those producers and those farmers. The real impact will be on the reputation of Tasmania in markets such as Taiwan and China. They've already responded.

Only today we saw reports of how fruit fly has been found in Spreyton, another community in Tasmania that is a fruit-growing area. The impact will be devastating. I have to say the response from the state minister was pathetic. The response to the question that we asked the Minister representing the Minister for Primary Industries in the other place was terrible. This is a huge issue for Tasmania, and he wasn't briefed. He wasn't prepared to answer those questions. There's one thing the Tasmanian people can be very clear about—they cannot count on the Liberals at either a state or the federal level. (Time expired)