Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is such a pleasure to be standing here today talking about the failure of the Albanese Labor government to guarantee maintaining the government's critical job-creating infrastructure investment to secure the future prosperity and sustainability of regional and rural Australia. For me, coming from the beautiful state of Tasmania, this is a cause that is very close to my heart. Over the last decade or so we have seen great improvements in the outcomes for Tasmanians due to the strong work of the previous federal coalition government and the state Tasmanian Liberal government.

We know that over the last few months, during the election campaign, the Albanese Labor government made many promises to Tasmanians as to what would be delivered, and I am certainly looking forward to seeing whether or not those commitments are maintained, because we know that many election commitments are currently under review. The government has made quite a big deal of, on one hand, spending the months in the lead-up to the election talking to local stakeholders, making commitments about projects that would be funded, and then as soon as the election was won and done for them, saying, 'Well, all of our commitments are under review; all of our commitments will be reconsidered as part of the budget process.' I think it is only fair that many Tasmanians and many Australians are asking the very genuine question of whether or not the Albanese Labor government is going to maintain those commitments to regional and rural Tasmania and regional and rural Australia into the future.