Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a complete embarrassment we have just heard from Senator Green on the other side. In fact, what an embarrassment we heard during question time today in answers that were given or, rather, in answers that weren't given to questions from coalition senators during question time. We see the same tactics all the time from this party, the Labor Party, who promised to be open and transparent in their government. It is yet another one of the Labor Party's broken promises—this government of broken promises—and they broke so many. Then they just come in and start making things up, as Senator Green just did in her contribution a moment ago, with respect to manufacturing.

We know that the shortage of IV fluids is having an effect. It is having an effect. If it wasn't having an effect, why is there a national conversation going on about it? We need more than a national conversation for an issue that has been known for over a year. I was talking to a procurement officer of a hospital just last week. Can I tell you, despite the denials from the Labor Party, this is having an effect on the way that the health system is operating. The Labor Party can trot out all the weasel words they like. They can try and blame somebody else. They can try and talk about it being a global shortage, which it's not. It's an Australian problem that they have known about since April last year and have done nothing about until recently. Now they are having a bit of a chat. What they should have done is take action at the particular point in time and dealt with the issue appropriately. But what do we get? We get deflection, we get blaming somebody else and we get talking about the opposition. The default position of this government when they get into strife is to blame someone else, talk about the opposition and talk about the oppositional leader, rather than actually dealing with the problems that are affecting Australians.

We see the same thing when it comes to the disallowance or the shutting down of the gold mine project. This wrecking ball of a minister, Minister Plibersek, who's cutting a swathe through industry in this country, makes a decision to kill off a project, but, of course, this open and transparent government says: 'We can't tell you why. You can't understand the reasons why this project is being closed down.' We see it again and again. I was told this morning of the night of the long knives here last week in Parliament House, where the salmon industry from Tasmania was summoned to Minister Plibersek's office and told their history and their future, and it's not good. MMG on the west coast of Tasmania were told their future, and it's not promising. The wind farm on Robbins Island were told about their future, and it's not promising either.

This government of broken promises is cutting a swathe through industry and a swathe through the west coast and the north-west coast of Tasmania with their broken promises and their weasel words like, 'We want to see a sustainable salmon industry operating in Tasmania.' How about, 'We want to see a strong and growing salmon industry operating in Tasmania'? All we get is weasel words from this government, nothing definitive, and the whole time this wrecking ball of a minister, Minister Plibersek, is killing off projects and creating uncertainty and angst in our local communities.

We come into question time, and we ask questions about these projects. We're dismissed. The issue is blamed on somebody else or blamed on us, yet this government won't make the decisions that support these local communities that take away the uncertainty and that create certainty for jobs. That's what these communities want. They don't want, 'We understand your concerns.' They don't want, 'We stand with you.' They want certainty about the fact that they are going to have a job in the future. They want certainty about the fact that their industry will continue to flourish. They want certainty about their project going ahead. It's about time this government was honest and straight with the Australian community instead of offering up mere weasel words.