Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

  I left my former profession of 31 years to enter politics for one important reason: to make a real difference for people in my community, and I have enjoyed some success in the nine months since the election. We have a revitalisation of the North Bank precinct which is about to commence. We $3 million to clear the choking silt out of the beautiful Tamar River and restore not only its environmental values but its social, recreational and business amenity. We are    upgrading Invermay Park, the most used sporting facility in Northern Tasmania. We are building 80 kilometres of world-class mountain bike trails in the beautiful country in the north-east of my electorate. We    upgrading the Flinders Island and Cape Baron Island airfields. We have over $500,000 for traffic black spots.

In the almost nine months since the election, I have found that one way of being successful in this place is spending a lot of time knocking on doors, trying to influence that important interface between the bureaucracy and the polity, where policy is best developed, bringing short-notice problems to the attention of ministers, problems in my community, and feeling a great sense of satisfaction when ministers respond, their staff and departments respond, as Australians would expect them to; also, engaging in the debate in this House with all its colour and pageantry and, regrettably at times, even the below decks interventions from the member for McEwen—but that is a separate story. Yet, in recent days, instead of debate about policy and the issues of most concern to our electorate, like getting debt and deficit under control, we have been confronted by an opposition more interested in stunts, rumour and superficiality. That was absolutely on show in the parliament here today, with questions from Labor based on rumour and hearsay that you, Madam Speaker, ruled out of order. Your generosity came to the fore to allow other questions through. Labor wasted valuable question time by allowing Greens motions to go through division after division in this House. They are pandering still to that Labor-Greens partnership that is still very strong, even in the 44th parliament, a partnership which is at the heart of the economic problems that beset our great nation.

We often talk about opportunity costs in politics. At the head of that list is the opportunity cost of a thousand million dollars that we borrow every month just to pay the interest on the debt that we have accrued in the last six years. Well, the Australian people deserve much better than what they are getting from the once proud Labor Party.

In contrast, we on this side of the House have a plan, with local, regional, national and even international dimensions, and we are prosecuting that plan with purpose and commitment. I can go home and tell my constituents that stopping the boats is not a three-word slogan; it is something that has been happening for 168 days—24 weeks that have saved $2.5 billion for the budget, as compared to the $11.5 billion blow-out under those opposite, and an average of a boat a day arriving in this country. That is what happens when you change to a government that has resolve. And my constituents understand that.

We said we would repeal the carbon tax, and of course it has passed the House of Representatives. The only reason that the people of my electorate are not getting that benefit of $550 per family from the repeal of a carbon tax is because that Labor-Greens partnership which I said is running so strongly is doing a blocking motion in the Senate and stopping that benefit to Australian families, including those in my electorate.

We said we would build the roads of the 21st century, and there was $50 billion in the budget—the biggest infrastructure spend in this country's history—and my state of Tasmania is getting a billion dollars of that, for the Midland Highway, and for freight rail infrastructure, and a whole range of other projects that will revitalise our economy.

But, as we know, strategy without resources is illusion, and getting the budget back under control, getting it back onto a sustainable footing, will make sure that we can do things for our people into the future. I call on those opposite who value the tradition of Hawke and Keating, that once proud Labor tradition, to listen to the Australian people, to listen to the people in my electorate, and stand aside and let us pass the things that will ease their burden into the future. Let us stop stealing from future generations to fund our unsustainable spending today. I call on you to search your conscience and do what is right for our country. No more stunts—let us discuss what is best for our nation.