Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to take this opportunity today to make a contribution in the senators' statements period of time. I'm again taking an opportunity to speak about things Tasmanian, and the thing at the front of most Tasmanians' minds is the pending state election, coming up on 3 March. Yes, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, I knew you'd be excited by that. I certainly am!

As we march onward to that date, things are becoming much clearer about the choice that Tasmanians have with regard to who they vote for at that election. It's becoming clearer what all the parties are putting on the table and what Tasmanians will be able to choose from on 3 March. As I said last week, it is a very stark contrast between the Liberal government, the Labor opposition and the Greens on the crossbench. That choice the voters have is stability or returning to the dark old days that we experienced in Tasmania between 2010 and 2014.

Coming up here to Canberra gives you an opportunity to step back, to not be inside what's happening on the ground in Tasmania and to actually get an overall sense of what the parties are doing. You get the opportunity to read media clippings and talk to locals over the phone about what they take out of what's going on in Tasmania. I'm really excited today to go through some of those observations, some of the things that candidates in the election have been saying, including some of the promises they've been making and some of the proposed explanations they've put on record as to how their policies would be rolled out.

What is concerning about the opposition leader in Tasmania, Ms Bec White, who leads the Tasmanian Labor Party in the state parliament, is her inability to stick to what she says she's going to do. She's had to take multiple positions on a number of issues. She promises at one point in time that she's going to do something in order to convince Tasmanians to vote for her, only to then, down the track, because she's been spooked or because something has raised concerns in her mind, change her position to try to kill off a political issue. Rather than sticking to things through conviction, she changes her position. This paints a picture of an individual—that is, the leader of the Labor opposition, Ms White—who will do anything and who will say anything to get into government and hang onto power. And that's something Tasmanians do need to be concerned about.

In the last couple weeks we've seen the opposition, in a matter of hours, show how the state budget would blow out under them, if they were elected. This is the party seeking to win the election and form government. Hundreds of millions of dollars were added to their expenditure because they were writing policy on the run in response to the Tasmanian Liberal's health policy—a very good policy, which was announced on Sunday. As I mentioned, we've already had the backflips, some of which I'll detail. There has been a lack of detail on their policy proposals: how they'll work, how they'll fund them, who they'll impact, who they won't impact. Of course, their big omission is a clear plan to take Tasmania onto a stronger future, to the next level. Not one idea, not one statement of substance about how they would improve Tasmania as a state economically, socially or on any of those fronts. Not one idea.

What we do know is that Ms White will work with the crossbenches and will happily form a minority government, despite what she says now.

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

You know that's not right, Jonathon.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection. Senator Urquhart says that she thinks that's wrong, but I will read a quote from Ms White, the opposition leader. On the question of minority government in Tasmania, she said in May last year:

Testing your numbers on the floor of the house is a different proposition … We'd reserve our right to make a decision about whether we would …

It sounds pretty clear to me: she's happy to go into the parliament and, as we also saw between 2010 and 2014, do a deal. I remember David Bartlett, the former Labor Premier of Tasmania, stood up before the 2010 election and said that doing a deal with the Greens is like doing a deal with the devil, but straight after the election he did one.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why don't you run on your record?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm happy to come to our record in a moment, Senator Chisholm. The quote demonstrates that Ms White is desperate to get into government, will say anything, will do anything and will do deals. That's what we need to be concerned about. It is quite clear, despite what she says now in the lead-up to the election, that she will do a deal with the Greens.

A number of positions taken in a variety of policy areas require some scrutiny. Ms White said that Labor would close the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in Deloraine, a significant piece of infrastructure, a significant employer in the community. In October she stated:

However, we recognise the crucial employment the facility provides for the local community, therefore, we believe the infrastructure and educational expertise could be used …

She was going to close it one day and keep it open the next, all because the government said, 'It's there, it's part of our system of youth justice; let's keep it.' She was rattled, and she backflipped. The Tasmanian government established the Office of the Coordinator-General in Launceston, a part of our state which has had its fair share of economic woes. Labor specifically announced in it's Economic Direction Statement:

Labor will abolish the role of Coordinator General …

Rebecca White has had multiple positions on this entity:

We have decided that the money that is spent on the Coordinator General's office … could be better directed to fund regional economic development officers right across the state.

That was 26 September last year. Then on 17 November last year the shadow Treasurer and finance minister, Scott Bacon, undermined Ms White by saying:

Labor has not proposed the closure of the Launceston office—

a complete 180. That position lasted less than three months. Tasmanian Labor re-announced on 31 January this year that it would, after all, abolish the Office of the Coordinator-General in Tasmania. We also have the on-again off-again position with regard to the northern prison. We've already seen a number of positions in relation to extending high schools to year 12. They say out one side of their mouth that they want to roll it back and then go around saying out the other side that they will keep it. Which is it? Tasmanians need to know.

On health policy, which was slated to be the keystone issue of this election, the one deciding issue, Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman announced on Sunday a huge policy relating to an investment in health care in Tasmania, over $700 million over a six-year period. Then Ms White, a bit rattled, was attempting to explain her policy on the run and mucked up in the worst of ways the costings for her policy, saying that Labor is promising to fix the health crisis by front-ending commitments and front-ending staff employment in the first two years. She went on to say that the $560 million was over three or four years, completely contradicting her own policy document, which makes no mention of front-ending expenditure with regard to staff or health services. The document states:

The staged plan will be rolled out over six years.

…   …   …

Labor's plan will deliver more beds over the next six years—

not what Ms White said in relation to front-ending funding.

We have a $700 million health plan which will reach out to, support and sustainably invest in communities in regional Tasmania, the north, the north-west and the south over a long period of time. These costings have been submitted to the Tasmanian Department of Treasury and Finance, which I doubt Labor have done themselves. The choice is very clear: you have a Liberal government in Tasmania that has a record it can stand proudly on and a very clear plan outlined for the future of the state, to take it to the next level, and an opposition leader who changes her position every day of the week.