Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I'm trying not to respond to the interjections—so that Tasmanians get practical support for jobs, practical support for industry and practical support for the marine environment so Tasmanians continue to enjoy pristine waters. It is in the interests of the long-term fishing industry to have clean waters and a clean environment. Those measures will build on the existing environmental and species conservation interventions in Macquarie Harbour by both government and industry.

Tasmanians deserve good jobs, and they deserve a good environment. They won't get either with the Liberal and National parties' political stunts and posturing. No doubt what they'll get are billboards—advertising money that tells workers that they should be afraid—but they'll get zero result from political parties that have never backed workers and industry in any serious way and have pushed Australian manufacturing offshore. Nor will they get a local champion for the fishing industry and for the environment that delivers to Tasmanians what they deserve. Of that funding, $21 million will be committed to improving and scaling up oxygenation work in Macquarie Harbour.

This is a stunt. We know it's a stunt because the environment laws that the Liberal and National parties complain about that now require Minister Plibersek to make a decision, in her capacity as minister for the environment, on salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour are not a creation of the Labor Party in government. They're not a creation of the Greens political party either. They are a creation of—

Debate interrupted.