Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we head towards a crucial election for Australia's future and in Australia's history, I rise this evening to explain Labor's vision, which is my vision, for my home state of Tasmania. I was inspired to enter politics by values of fairness, respect for diversity and equality of opportunity, and those are still my guiding principles. I have always striven for a Tasmanian society that is fair and inclusive. I have worked to help inspire a friendly Tasmanian society where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. I have spent almost all my life in a community which cares for each other, our pristine environment and our quality of life.

I want to help foster that sense of community, one where everyone can get a great education, get access to quality health care, get a decent job and live well in our cherished environment. That is why I have fought hard against this Turnbull Liberal government. And I will continue to fight because Labor has a better way, a fairer way, a way that supports every individual, not just those that can afford to pay. I believe also that Tasmania can become a global powerhouse of renewable energy. But it requires the right leadership, not a government of climate sceptics that has attacked our renewable industries and signed Australia up to some of the weakest emissions reduction targets in the developed world.

I have a vision for Tasmania where no-one is left behind, no matter what their background, gender or circumstance, and I see that vision being achieved in large part through education and creativity. I have a passion for education and the arts. They are the key by which lives can be transformed, empowered and made so much the richer. My vision is Labor's vision, and that is why the Shorten Labor government that I will fight for, which will provide unprecedented investment in education, is so important—teaching coding in every school, supporting teachers with professional development in science, engineering, maths and technology, STEM, supporting students with special needs and, especially and absolutely, supporting the funding of Gonski.

But Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal government, like Tony Abbott's before it, is ditching Labor's Gonski reforms and ripping $30 billion from Australian schools. And that's just the start of their vision—or, rather, lack of vision—for Australia. From its plans to privatise Medicare, its billions of dollars of cuts to our hospitals and schools, its $100,000 university degrees and its desire to rip penalty rates away from those who work the hardest and need those rewards the most, to its attack on science, on the CSIRO's climate change scientists who provide the nation with such vital information, its crushing of the Australian renewable energy industry and its refusal to take responsibility for Australia's environment and ensure Australia plays its role in the global community's efforts to stave off the coming climate change catastrophe, all of that and much more is evidence enough of this government's plan for Australia and Tasmania. It is a dangerous and cruel plan of unfairness, arrogance and greed. The Turnbull government is quite happy for multinationals to pay no tax whilst ordinary tax-paying Australians suffer from cuts to schools, hospitals and basic services by this Turnbull Liberal government.

Labor will stand up for all Australians, and the choices could not be any clearer between Labor and Liberal. Labor has positive policies that put people first. The Liberal Party seems very focused and, indeed, intent upon defending vested interests and the big banks. Labor is ready for this election because we know exactly what we stand for: decent jobs, well-funded education, quality health care, the protection of Medicare, renewable energy which is encouraged to take up the burden of climate change and a fair taxation system. In the coming weeks I will be telling Tasmanians why a vote for Labor is a vote for a better future. A vote for Labor is a vote that puts people first.