Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, I want to talk about the trust that I asked for from the people of Tasmania when I became a senator 14 years ago. In my first speech to this parliament, I asked the people of Tasmania to take me at my word. Today, I want to recommit to the people of Tasmania that I will never give up on standing up for you. You can trust me and you can believe what I say to you. Today, I want to say to Linton, Salty, Tracy and your fellow workers; to Tash, Sammy and the other mothers in Strahan; and especially to young Logan and his schoolmates that I will stand up for you.

This debate is about several things. It's about good, well-paid jobs in Tasmania, which I have spent my working life standing up for. Most of you here have not worked on the factory floor in food production or in industries and processing plants that sustain whole communities. Let me tell you the same thing that I said 14 years ago in my first speech in this place: I will always stand on the side of workers, for workers' rights and for the protection of their jobs.

This debate is also about community. It's about the aspirations of individuals and families to put down roots in a place that really means something to them. It's about safety and certainty and a place to call home. It's about the school that your kids attend, where you want them to focus on learning, not on worrying whether Mum and Dad will have jobs, whether their mate's mums and dads will have jobs or whether the school will close and their family will move on.

It's also about the environment, and I won't apologise for having secured $37 million for environmental measures that support the health of Macquarie Harbour and the sustainability of the salmon industry, including funding for very successful oxygenation of the harbour; for a captive breeding program for the maugean skate, which is exceeding every expectation; and for better surveys and monitoring of harbour health. This investment is delivering real returns. For the first time in nearly a decade, scientists have recorded an increased presence of young maugean skate and found that the skate population is stabilising. The scientists at the University of Tasmania have told us that no further declines have been detected and, in fact, an abundance of trends are improving. There are no accidents in the investments the government has made in the health of the harbour and the future of the skate. Both industry and government have invested in science-led solutions. It's been deliberate and methodical, and our efforts are paying off.

This legislation is a specific amendment to address a flaw in the EPBC Act. We're not going to stand by and see workers lose their jobs because of this broken law. The blame game which is singing out the industry and the communities whose livelihoods depend on the industry will not guide my actions, nor will it guide the actions of this Labor government.