Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Tasmania approaches its state election this weekend, it is clear there is a huge risk to my home state and to the prosperity and success of Tasmanian families and businesses. That risk is the prospect of another Labor-Greens state government. It was under a Labor-Greens government from 2010 to 2014 that Tasmania saw hundreds of nurses and police officers being sacked, schools being earmarked for closure, services being slashed and industries being deliberately decimated—destroying jobs and sending thousands of Tasmanians interstate to find work. That's not just my view and it's not just the Liberal Party's view; even the Labor Party in subsequent years has admitted the huge mistake it made in allowing the Greens into the cabinet room between 2010 and 2014. Indeed, Labor made a big show of promising they would never do it again. Yet here we are just a few years later and we have to Tasmanian Labor Party making it their entire election strategy to sneak back into government with the help of their friends in the Greens. They promised they would never do it again and they are preparing to break that promise, not for the good of Tasmania, not for the good of jobs or industries but purely to get themselves into power. In doing so, they are prepared to do a deal with the Greens despite knowing that that deal will destroy the economy, wreck the state budget and undermine key industries like aquaculture and forestry, just like it did in the dark days of minority Labor government between 2010 and 2014.

To my fellow Tasmanians, I say here today: don't risk another Labor-Greens government this Saturday. Do not put the future of our state at risk just so that Labor can govern with the Greens.