Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand before you today to deliver a simple truth, laid bare by this federal budget, and that is that Scott Morrison cannot be trusted to look after the best interests of Tasmanians.

An honourable member: Point of order!

The Prime Minister. Time and again this Prime Minister and this government have demonstrated their appalling lack of respect for Tasmanians. That trillion-dollar-debt nothing-burger of a budget was the final straw. Our country is facing multiple crises. Wages are flat or going backwards. Aged-care residents and workers are being left behind. Australians with disabilities are being cast aside. Key industries are desperate for skilled workers, who are not there because of eight long years of cuts to training. This country has 140,000 fewer apprentices and trainees now than it had eight years ago when the Liberals came to power. Three billion dollars of cuts to training will do that. We are playing catch-up with the vaccine rollout.

These are issues that affect all Australians. But, when it comes to Tasmania, we are even further behind. Let's start off with housing. The public housing waiting list in Tasmania has increased by 75 per cent since the Liberals took government in Tasmania in 2014. It has gone up by 75 per cent. Over 2019-20, just five homes were added to social housing, and despite promising 80 new houses a year as a result of the Commonwealth housing debt waiver, we haven't seen a single one built this year—this when housing is less affordable than ever for many Tasmanians.

We know the Prime Minister cannot be trusted to look after the best interests of anyone except himself. This Prime Minister is only interested in one person, and that's the person in the mirror. Let's talk about infrastructure. Not less than a fortnight ago, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer got up to trumpet a $322 million investment in Tasmanian roads. Huge amounts of money for the Bass and Midland highways; a multimillion boost for the state—these were the headlines. They were effusive, and based on prebudget leaks. But, as we all know, with this government and this Prime Minister the devil is always in the detail. Just $4 million of the supposed $322 million package will be spent in the 2021-22 financial year. In the following year it will be $17 million and in the year after that it will be $20 million. In fact, just $96 million of the $322 million is budgeted to be spent over the next four years. Most of the headline amount is off in the never-never. It's yet another case of the Prime Minister's self-centred quest to feature on every news channel and in every paper in the country without ever having real news to share. It is all announcement, no delivery.

We've seen this Prime Minister demonstrate his inability to look after this country time and time again. This is a prime minister who is unwilling to take responsibility for his actions, and for his inaction. This is a prime minister whose instincts are always wrong. Every step of his error-riddled reign has been flat-footed, reactive and focused on one thing: getting his face in the news. Even then, he can't get it right. He was wrong to trumpet a successful vaccine rollout and set targets for positive press. We've seen over the year just how wrong he was.

Debate interrupted.

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