Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Tasmanians are pretty used to being left off the map, but I think we thought our Tasmanian Liberal senators and our state government might have a bit more influence in Canberra than they actually do, because Tuesday night's budget speech not only had not one mention of Tasmania, or of any project in Tasmania, but pretty much left Tassie off the map again. Tasmanians are pretty cranky about this. In fact, the Murdoch press itself is talking about Tassie being left off the map. There is a double page spread today, and there was a double page spread yesterday, about how badly Tasmania has done under this Liberal government, and Tasmanians are fed up with it. Indeed, Tasmanians are very annoyed that our Liberal premier went out and said that he would get the more than $2 billion worth of cuts to our hospitals and our schools reversed. This budget locks in those cuts. Those cuts to our hospitals, and most of the cuts to our schools, are still there, and Tasmanians are not happy.

There are a whole range of important projects in Tasmania that are ready to go. In fact, they are on Infrastructure Australia's priority list. Did they get a mention? Did they get any funding? No, they did not. In fact, the only infrastructure spending that is happening in Tasmania is that which was announced in the 2013 budget by Labor. There have been no new investments in Tasmania from this Liberal government bar one, which is one we campaigned for, that we announced in the lead-up to the last election campaign. The Liberal Party were dragged kicking and screaming to match it—and they did that in the last week. They do not want to support Tasmanians. Tasmanians are sick of it, and they are sick of the lack of influence—

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