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

I think what we're seeing here, once again, is the Liberal and National parties determined to create fear, to posture and to act without substance in relation to the future of the salmon industry in northern Tasmania. The government's position could not be clearer. It could not be clearer. The Prime Minister has made it very clear indeed.

The Albanese Labor government backs salmon workers. The Albanese Labor government backs blue-collar jobs in northern Tasmania. The Prime Minister has been down there himself, and the position has been made abundantly clear. I have to say that, in addition to that, there is a $33 million commitment from the Albanese government in relation to the maugean skate and the water issues in that harbour.

I'll tell you who else has also been really clear: Senator Anne Urquhart, Labor's candidate for Braddon. A former food industry worker who's worked on the production line is absolutely the right person to represent blue-collar workers in northern Tasmania. They can have confidence in her, because Labor backs the aluminium industry in Tasmania—a $2 billion commitment opposed by the people over here. Labor backs the salmon industry in a sensible way that will mean we will achieve the proper environmental objectives and also secure the interests of those workers and their jobs. And we will do so in an orderly way. As fascinated as I am by the political timetable and the partisanship of those opposite, Labor will not approach these issues in the chaotic way of the old Morrison government, or in the way a future—heaven help us—Dutton government might, if ever it graces these benches. We will do it in a sober, considered and deliberate way that will protect the interests of workers and, of course, the Tasmanian environment.

I move:

That the question be now put.