Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Forgive me for being just a little confused here. We've got the good senator from Tasmania who opposes the stadium, opposes his own Liberal state government, who says that the stadium shouldn't be built, who criticises the government at a federal level for making a contribution—I'm just a little concerned about how confused my Tasmanian community will be. Not only are you misleading this chamber in relation to how GST is allocated but you're propping up a Liberal state government that is putting Tasmania further and further into debt every single day. They're in chaos. The minister responsible for infrastructure, the Hon. Michael Ferguson, had to step away. Why did he have to step away? Because he failed as that minister and had to step away.

Not only that, if you want to talk about the stadium, why don't you tell the full story and say how your colleagues in Tasmania have not allocated any funding for the underground car park. How much is that going to cost the Tasmanian community? How much further are your colleagues that you're defending going to run Tasmania into debt?

But could you clarify at some stage: are you a supporter of the stadium or not? Because you're coming in and misleading the chamber in relation to the allocation of funding of GST, so let's just clarify things, shall we? Commonwealth payments for sporting infrastructure related to the hosting of international sports events are usually treated as not impacting GST calculations by the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission, which you, Senator Duniam, know very well. You're just trying to be a little too tricky. Maybe you're taking too many lessons from Mr Dutton.

But why was it then that, as a Tasmanian senator who is so genuinely concerned about getting our share of the GST, you supported a Liberal government with a Liberal minister for health—none other than Mr Peter Dutton, who, when he was Minister for Health, was voted the worst health minister in Australia's history—that cut $50 billion from health, including from Tasmanians, who have some of the worst chronic illnesses in this country? At least, in the rambling contribution of my good friend Senator Duniam, he acknowledged that it was this Labor government, not his state government, that made a commitment to fund the new heart unit in Launceston. It was the Liberal state government after the last state election who backed away from that commitment and had to be bailed out by this government. We put $120 million into it. The Prime Minister announced this on 25 September in Launceston, along with, I might add, a very grateful Mr Rockliff, the Liberal Premier. And why was he so grateful? Because he's on a very rocky road, because he knows that former senator Eric Abetz is after his job. That brought a smile to Senator Duniam's face, because he knows it's true. It's only a matter of time.

But let's not forget what else the Prime Minister announced when he was in Launceston, in the great state of Tasmania, with our fabulous education minister, Jason Clare. It was further funding for education to assist young Tasmanian kids to reach their potential, which no previous Liberal government, state or federal, has had the gumption to do. So I am proud to stand here and defend this government, because there is no-one who has been a better friend to Tasmania than our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in terms of what he has delivered, both previously when he was a minister and now as the leader. He has been to Tasmania a lot more times than has Peter Dutton. And I might say this: a good thing about my recent visits to schools across Tasmania was that they didn't even know who the Leader of the Opposition was, let alone like him.

Question agreed to.