Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

It would be a bad day to be a member of the state Labor team in Tasmania, when you're hung out to dry by the Australian Labor Party in the form of the Albanese government. Today we read in the paper that, if elected, the new Labor government would tear up Marinus Link. For those listening, I will tell you about Marinus Link. It's a project which was first envisaged by the former coalition government around the need to generate more clean energy. Of course it is this crew opposite—the government, who sometimes don't act like a government, if you judge them on their behaviour in this place—who are all about clean, green energy. Marinus Link and the Battery of the Nation are two projects which I would have thought the Australian Labor Party and the Albanese government would be backing, but they are now under threat because of moves by a group of people that want to form government in Tasmania.

I'll remind senators of what was said by Labor's energy spokesperson in Tasmania just this morning in the Hobart newspaper, the Mercury. Mr Winter, Labor member for Franklin, said, 'Tasmania would be best off getting out of the Marinus project as soon as possible'—not at a later date or at some specified date in the future after the link is fully operational, which is what the minister told us would be the case. He went on to say, 'There's no point throwing good money after bad, at a project where more than 90 per cent of the benefit flows to the mainland.' Mr Winter—this economic whiz, in touch with small business and, of course, the cost-of-living crisis thrust upon us by the Australian Labor Party—is out of touch. He doesn't understand that there are 1,400 jobs directly linked to this project. He's happy to chuck them out the window. Most of them are in regional Tasmania and not in his electorate, so he probably doesn't care. We'll find out one day.

And, of course, in terms of $1.4 billion of investment from this project alone, it is shameful that, ahead of an election, a candidate seeking to be a minister in a new government would stand up and say: 'You know what? We don't want this. We don't actually want this for Tasmania. We don't want the economic benefits. We don't want to share our clean, green energy to reduce carbon emissions with the Australian mainland.' Meanwhile, this mob over here turn the tap off on other forms of reliable energy generation. It just doesn't make sense.

But taking note of the answer given by Senator Gallagher, the minister—who I respect greatly; she is a great servant of the people of the ACT—she took issue with me asking a question about Tasmanian issues, which is kind of odd; I am a Tasmanian senator concerned about exactly what's happening down there. But the fact is that Senator Gallagher hung Ms Bec White, the Labor leader in Tasmania, and her shadow energy spokesman out to dry. Their policy is now in tatters. They can't walk away from Marinus Link.

Minister Gallagher confirmed for us today that their policy to walk away from Marinus Link, to tear up this agreement with the Commonwealth, cannot take effect until the first cable is laid and fully operational. It means that that money will have to be spent no matter who is in government—unless the Tasmanian Labor team are lying to the electorate—