Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to congratulate those involved in the promotion and development of the Southern Highlands Irrigation Scheme at Bothwell, in the Central Highlands municipality in my electorate of Lyons. I note the member for Franklin and the support of both sides of government—in Tasmania particularly. I acknowledge particularly David Llewellyn—the work that he did as the previous minister—and more recently, Jeremy Rockcliff. There is $60 million to deliver five of the Tranche Two schemes around the state—the first of which will be under construction is the Southern Highlands scheme. It is a scheme that will deliver over 7,200 megalitres of highly reliable—95 per cent reliable—irrigation to the surrounding areas. There will be a holding dam of water pumped out of winter flows from the Shannon River north-west of Bothwell that will deliver water over the summer irrigation's 120-day season, at 95 per cent reliability, to over 23 farmers who have purchased water in the scheme. This is a truly public-private partnership. Across the five schemes, nearly $30 million of private money has gone in, as well as $30 million from the state government and $60 million from the Commonwealth government to see the schemes developed over the next year or so. They are transformational. The Central Highlands area is one of the driest parts of our state. It is fine agricultural land indeed, but it is an area that has been prone to drought. That might sound a little odd to somebody from the middle of New South Wales, but, nevertheless, it is an unreliable rainfall area.

This will provide certainty and will give the farmers in that area the confidence to invest and expand their businesses. For the broader community that will mean employment. For local businesses—the ag suppliers, the agronomists, the rural services, the pub, the local store—it is an opportunity to grow their businesses. It will be good for the local community of Bothwell. It will mean that the school will have the chance of being more viable over the long term. Indeed, this is a truly transformational project. I congratulate Richard Hallett and all the people who have been involved for so long in seeing this scheme come to fruition. Deirdre Flint, Mayor of the Central Highlands, has been a strong advocate for this scheme. As I mentioned, Minister Jeremy Rockliff has supported the Commonwealth's efforts to fund this. This will be great for the Central Highlands.

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

Whilst I certainly agree with the member for Lyons when it comes to irrigation and the bipartisanship the irrigation schemes have seen in Tasmania, I want to draw the attention of the House to a document that I came across when I was looking at exactly what the members for Lyons, Bass and Braddon have delivered for Tasmania. I came across this little gem: Economic growth plan for Tasmania. Running through the document, I came across a whole range of interesting projects that the Liberal Party, prior to the last election, committed to deliver to Tasmania. Interestingly, as you run through the document, you can see it is quite a failed list. It is interesting because the member for Bass was in here going on about how great it is and how they have delivered on it, but when I read through the document all I find is a whole heap of broken promises.

The Major Projects Approvals Agency was established in July 2014 by the government. It is true—they did establish it—but it has not done anything at all. What was it supposed to do? It was supposed to make it easier for projects to occur that would invest a minimum of $50 million in new fixed capital in Tasmania before 2020. We have not seen anything occur at all by the Major Projects Approval Agency to date. The second item was the Tasmanian jobs plan. They were going to fund a payment of $3,250 to a Tasmanian business and create up to 2,000 jobs. It was such a failure—it was administered, of course, by Senator Abetz, the former Minister for Employment—that they had to double the subsidy. They cancelled it and put it into their wage subsidy pool because it was such a failure. It actually spent more on advertising itself as a program than it did on actual wage subsidies. That is how much of a failure it was.

If we keep going down the list, there is $38 million to expand the Hobart airport. This week we saw that they have only allocated just over $1.5 million, or thereabouts, to the $38 million for the project. According to Senator Abetz, construction was supposed to start last year—a two-year construction period creating 200 jobs. It has not even started yet and, indeed, we do not expect it to start this year. We saw the Midland Highway commitment for which they allocated $400 million—which amounts to $100 million being ripped out from Labor's commitment on the Midland Highway—as part of the economic growth plan. We saw a commitment to relocate federal government agencies to Tasmania and, of course, that has not happened. Instead, the Oceans and Atmosphere office of CSIRO has been threatened in Hobart. There are only 300 CSIRO employees in Tasmania and about 200 of them work in this office, and they still do not know what their future is. So the coalition's plan for Tasmania has been an abject failure and it has not been delivered on.