David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to address this house on the urgent need for a change of policy approach in Tasmania, a change that can only be delivered if the people of Tasmania vote for a change of government on 15 March.

I said before the last election in 2010 that that election was the most important election for Tasmania's future in living memory. I think the events since then have proven me correct. This election is again the most important in living memory for Tasmanians, and its importance is only underlined by the disaster that befell Tasmania through having to suffer under a Labor government in coalition with the Greens over that last four years. This is not just my opinion; it is shared by many Tasmanian industry groups, small-business owners, families and even community groups.

I am unashamedly a very proud Tasmanian—as are you, Mr Deputy President. I was born and bred in Tasmania. I completed my education there. I have started and run businesses in Tasmania. I have chosen to raise my family in Tasmania. And of course I consider it an absolute and rare privilege and opportunity that I have been given by the people of Tasmania to represent them here in this chamber.

Tasmania is a beautiful and unique part of the world, with many great comparative and absolute economic advantages and opportunities.

But, sadly, through 16 years of successive Labor governments Tasmanians have been frustrated and repressed in reaching their potential. Since the last state election, in 2010, under the dysfunctional Giddings-McKim, Labor-Greens government, we have seen bizarre arrangements under a Westminster system, where Greens were in cabinet but chose not to be when difficult issues arose. Even more bizarrely, early on a Greens minister was also a Greens opposition spokesman attacking the government of which he was part. The 12 years that preceded those four years were bad enough for Tasmania, with evidence showing we went backwards on almost all economic and social indices.

The marriage between Labor and the Greens has spelt disaster for the state of Tasmania. Of course, for political purposes that suit both the Greens and Labor, a very conveniently-timed divorce has since been arranged, and Premier Lara Giddings sacked the two Greens ministers from her cabinet earlier this year. Under Labor and the Greens' economic stewardship, Tasmania now has the highest unemployment rate in the country. The most recent figures show that there are 19,000 Tasmanians who now have to line up on the unemployment queue. That is not just a number. It represents real people who face real daily challenges making ends meet, who suffer the indignity of not having a job and who have been let down by Labor and their fellow political travellers, the Greens.

As a direct consequence of people giving up trying, Tasmania has also experienced a significant drop in its participation rate—the rate is currently at a decade low. This reflects the crushing lack of hope affecting our employment market as people move interstate or give up looking for work because it simply does not exist. Since Lara Giddings became Premier nearly 10,000 jobs have disappeared from Tasmania, and droves of people have been forced to leave our great state to find employment in other parts of the country.

This is more than just numbers. Often those who leave are the young and the best educated or trained, as they seek to make a living or use their skills or qualifications in ways that Tasmania's moribund economy cannot support. A key example of the deliberate decisions made by the Labor/Greens alliance that have undermined Tasmanian's job prospects is their decision to use taxpayer funds to close down business and jobs, through the so-called Intergovernmental Agreement on Forestry—the IGA. The IGA has cut small towns off at the knees. Small communities right across Tasmania thrived on the back of the most sustainable and well managed forest industry in the world. They are the communities on the east coast of Tasmania such as Triabunna and those further north in towns such as Scottsdale, towns in the south around Geeveston and in the Huon Valley, up the Derwent Valley and in the far north-west around Smithton. These were all thriving areas with forestry underpinning their local economies, and all are now crippled by the hardship and heartache that this deal has caused.

The final outcome is small businesses closing their doors; or families broken, with fathers, husbands and sons who were once employed by the industries associated with forestry but who have now been forced to take their skills interstate to seek employment on the FIFO market. Prior to the last election Labor was on a unity ticket with the Liberals on forestry. But once in bed with the Greens, all of a sudden and with no mandate from the people, Labor moved to close down almost all of the industry through the IGA. But it is not just the forest industry that Labor and the Greens have attacked. Through their economic mismanagement they have managed to damage a range of other sectors, from manufacturing to food production.

The state of Tasmania is world renowned for its exports, be it seafood, meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese or many of the other wonderful artisan products produced in our island state. We have a global reputation for quality of food production. Yet new ABS figures confirm that in 2013 Tasmania's exports hit lows not seen since 2005. It is further proof that Labor and the Greens have failed Tasmanian exporters and have no grip on the economy whatsoever. Exports are vital to any island economy, and these figures serve to show just how out of touch this Labor government is in failing to act on Tasmania's international export freight problem.

Adding to our economic malaise, we in Tasmania have not been immune to the hallmark of any Labor government: an ever-increasing red-tape and green-tape burden. Over the last four years, Labor, along with their now conveniently estranged Greens ministers, have introduced a staggering 523 regulations, which equates to a new regulation nearly every two-and-a-half days. Red and green tape is costing Tasmanian businesses $1.3 billion every year. This comes on top of all the other difficulties and barriers state Labor governments have created for business through their disgraceful mismanagement of the state's economy. In short, Labor has taken a wrecking ball to the state of Tasmania.

Labor's performance also raises the question of trust. For example, Labor's statements and actions have proved that Tasmanians just cannot trust anything Labor says about the budget any longer. Every year we have heard them tell us about a budget surplus and that it is just around the corner. In every year they have failed to deliver. In 2011 Labor promised a $1.9 million surplus within four years. In 2012 it was a surplus of around $50 million, in 2012-13. In 2013 Labor revised their figures to a $9.9 million surplus in 2016-17. Yet the reality is that this year there will be a $376 million deficit. Let me repeat that: $376 million in the year just two years after Labor said there would be a surplus of around $50 million.

This comes on top of last year, the 2012-13 year, in which Labor actually delivered a $316 million deficit. The year before that they delivered a $186 million deficit. The year before that, in 2010-11, Labor delivered to the people of Tasmania a $23 million deficit. As members of this place will appreciate, accumulating debt on that scale and that quickly severely undermines the ability of the Tasmanian government to spend wisely on high-priority areas, as debt interest and servicing costs divert funds.

The breach of these fiscal responsibility promises also highlights what I have already discussed: the lack of economic capacity within the Giddings government, backed up with an incredible admission from the Premier herself just a couple of weeks ago that none of her election promises are offset with savings—and this despite her recklessly making tens of millions of dollars' worth of election promises in the catastrophic economic climate she has created.

Contrast this with the Liberals' plan, under which all new spending is offset by identified savings. If any further proof of Labor's economic failings is required, one need only look at the Deloitte Access business outlook report released in January this year, which stated:

Recent data have been better in Tasmania, but then again it would have been hard for them to be worse.

Similarly:

Retail was rotten, housing construction was horrid, and business investment went backwards.

Even more concerning is the recent downgrading of Tasmania's rating from stable to negative by international rating agency Moody's. This ratings downgrade acts like a scorecard by experts on the performance of the Labor-Greens government, and it represents a great, big 'F'. It sends a strong signal to the markets that the quality of Tasmania's credit is deteriorating and has costly consequences for the interest rate paid on all the debt Labor has been racking up.

The fact is that Tasmanians cannot afford Labor's reckless waste and mismanagement any longer. We need a change—it is time for a change. I believe that Tasmanians are ready to acknowledge that there must be a better way than the sad, sorry path we have been led down by Labor. So, in nine days' time, Tasmanians have an important choice to make and the chance to have their say. Tasmanians have the opportunity to choose the party with the best plan for Tasmania's future. I believe the party with that plan is the Tasmanian Liberal Party under the leadership of the Hon. Will Hodgman.

The Tasmanian Liberals have outlined in great detail their plan to get Tasmania back on track and are continually releasing new policies throughout this election campaign, adding to the many that they already have in the public domain. For example, on 1 March they released their comprehensive First 100 Days Implementation Plan should they be elected to government on 15 March. They have campaigned strongly with policies to tackle the Tasmanian jobs crisis and growing the economy by focusing on agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, mining and tourism. I could go through a long list of policies and measures that the opposition is intending to implement if it becomes the government. They are all designed to get people working in Tasmania and to get the Tasmanian economy back to where it should be.

A majority Hodgman Liberal government will restore the balance Tasmania so desperately needs right now. The Tasmanian Liberals are the only party with strong enough support to deliver strong and stable majority government. (Time expired)