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

That is absolutely right. That includes when it comes to these promises that are being made about health funding in Tasmania. We have a stretched health system. It requires huge investments and, yes, the Commonwealth government has over a very long period of time supported the state of Tasmania in these crucial investments. Ms White, the Labor leader, has gone around Tasmania telling people that she, in partnership with the Australian Labor government, will fund massive infrastructure projects in all of our hospitals—the Royal Hobart Hospital, the Launceston General Hospital, the Mersey Community Hospital and the North-West Regional Hospital. As it turns out, those promises haven't been funded. Not a dollar of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Rebecca White, the Labor leader in Tasmania, has promised will be funded. Not once has she bothered to check with the Australian government's health minister, Mr Butler. Not a cent will be funded. It's quite disappointing, but it is not surprising, because we expect nothing more than that.

Tasmanians want the truth when it comes to promises being made about their health system. Much has been made by the Australian Labor Party and the Tasmanian Labor Party about what's happening in our health system in Tasmania. This is why I'm so incredibly disappointed that Ms White, whom I respect, has gone so low as to make promises to the Tasmanian people she knows she can't keep. There is no way to understand how much they are going to be able to fund from Australian government coffers to make her promises work. By contrast, however, we've seen the Tasmanian government, the Rockliff government, put forward a sustainable plan, one that is fully costed and funded. They've been managing the health service in Tasmania in an exemplary way for the last decade.

I want to talk about the number of nurses that were cut in the years up to 2014, when the Labor Party had been in government for 16 years—the last four of which, I might add, were in partnership with the Tasmanian contingent of that mad crew, the Australian Greens. Two of them were ministers in the Tasmanian government. We saw nurses sacked, hospital wards closed down and beds from hospitals put into storage. This is exactly what we're going to see again if Tasmanians even think twice about voting for the Tasmanian Labor Party, because you know exactly what's going to happen: they're going do another deal with the Greens. You're going to see Vica Bayley and Rosalie Woodruff, the two Greens members of the Tasmanian parliament, in cabinet with Premier White. That is a nightmare recipe right there, and it will result in exactly the same things that we have been warning about for a long time.

So proven—

I will take the interjection from the acting leader. A coalition of chaos—that's exactly what it will be. There is no way that Rebecca White, the Tasmanian Labor leader, can ever govern in majority. It will always be, particularly in the lead-up to this election, with the support of the Tasmanian Greens. That is why, I must say, this is something Tasmanians need to know. The Albanese Labor government didn't even know they'd made those promises—those hundreds of millions of dollars of federal money that had been promised to the people of Tasmania on behalf of the Albanese Labor government. It's a con, it is a joke and it is something Tasmanians cannot trust.

So, as we hurtle towards Saturday and as Tasmanians cast their vote, I'll look forward to engaging in some sparkling, glittering, gleaming repartee with Senator Polley on the Sky News panel on Saturday night. When we analyse the results, we are going to be quite the beacon on Saturday night, as we are able to stand out and shine for people to see what the truth is. But people will cast their vote on the day, and I hope it's Liberal.