Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to take this opportunity today to make a contribution in the senators' statements period of time. I'm again taking an opportunity to speak about things Tasmanian, and the thing at the front of most Tasmanians' minds is the pending state election, coming up on 3 March. Yes, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, I knew you'd be excited by that. I certainly am!

As we march onward to that date, things are becoming much clearer about the choice that Tasmanians have with regard to who they vote for at that election. It's becoming clearer what all the parties are putting on the table and what Tasmanians will be able to choose from on 3 March. As I said last week, it is a very stark contrast between the Liberal government, the Labor opposition and the Greens on the crossbench. That choice the voters have is stability or returning to the dark old days that we experienced in Tasmania between 2010 and 2014.

Coming up here to Canberra gives you an opportunity to step back, to not be inside what's happening on the ground in Tasmania and to actually get an overall sense of what the parties are doing. You get the opportunity to read media clippings and talk to locals over the phone about what they take out of what's going on in Tasmania. I'm really excited today to go through some of those observations, some of the things that candidates in the election have been saying, including some of the promises they've been making and some of the proposed explanations they've put on record as to how their policies would be rolled out.

What is concerning about the opposition leader in Tasmania, Ms Bec White, who leads the Tasmanian Labor Party in the state parliament, is her inability to stick to what she says she's going to do. She's had to take multiple positions on a number of issues. She promises at one point in time that she's going to do something in order to convince Tasmanians to vote for her, only to then, down the track, because she's been spooked or because something has raised concerns in her mind, change her position to try to kill off a political issue. Rather than sticking to things through conviction, she changes her position. This paints a picture of an individual—that is, the leader of the Labor opposition, Ms White—who will do anything and who will say anything to get into government and hang onto power. And that's something Tasmanians do need to be concerned about.

In the last couple weeks we've seen the opposition, in a matter of hours, show how the state budget would blow out under them, if they were elected. This is the party seeking to win the election and form government. Hundreds of millions of dollars were added to their expenditure because they were writing policy on the run in response to the Tasmanian Liberal's health policy—a very good policy, which was announced on Sunday. As I mentioned, we've already had the backflips, some of which I'll detail. There has been a lack of detail on their policy proposals: how they'll work, how they'll fund them, who they'll impact, who they won't impact. Of course, their big omission is a clear plan to take Tasmania onto a stronger future, to the next level. Not one idea, not one statement of substance about how they would improve Tasmania as a state economically, socially or on any of those fronts. Not one idea.

What we do know is that Ms White will work with the crossbenches and will happily form a minority government, despite what she says now.