Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I very much look forward to making my contributions in this little part of the Senate agenda for the day. My favourite topic is of course the state of Tasmania, which is what I'm going to talk about today, and, in particular, that amazing Tasmanian Liberal government, the Rockliff government, that is putting energy, energy, energy into an amazing project—an upgrade of the Midland Highway, which runs between two population centres, Hobart and Launceston, a beautiful city in the north of the state. It is a bit painful to get from one end of the state to the other, but, I tell you what, that pain is worth the gain.

It's great to see the 'Elbow-Knees-y' government working in lock step with the Rockliff government, picking up from the former government, the Morrison government. But it's great to see all Tasmanians pulling in the same direction, making sure that our state and its economy grow, whether you like sarsaparilla or you like Coke, whether you cook on a George Foreman grill or you cook on a barbecue. All of these things are the amazing quality of Tasmanians.

I just wanted to take this opportunity, too, as a proud Tasmanian, to talk about energy—and I do acknowledge the presence of my good friend and colleague Senator Brown, who I work very closely with on a lot of these issues, including on the preparation of some of these speeches to highlight the good things about our state. I know she's a supporter of the Tasmanian government, and the good works they do as well; we all pull in the same direction, as I said. When it comes to energy, we have things like our amazing opportunity when it comes to pumped hydro and the Marinus Link that will one day connect Tasmania even more with the mainland and generate that clean, green energy. I'm a proud Tasmanian and I stand with my colleagues to make sure that we do a great job—with that energy, energy, energy that we all display in this place.