Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tuesday night's budget was obviously very disappointing for Tasmania. There was hardly anything in there for my home state, despite the billions of dollars being splashed around on mainland infrastructure projects. Yes, the federal government says there is $1.1 billion for Tasmania, but frankly that is all old news, such as the continued Mersey Community Hospital funding and the Launceston City Deal. Responsibility for this shambles does not rest simply with the federal government, because the state government must also shoulder the blame. Indeed, the state government should be doing its job, knocking on the doors of its Liberal Party colleagues in Canberra and fighting for our fair share of the big money on offer. But alas it is simply not the case, because the state government continues to show, time and time again, that either it does not know or does not care about all this potential federal investment.

The best example of what I am talking about is the University of Tasmania's visionary STEM proposal for the Hobart CBD. This project would be transformational for the university, for Hobart and for Tasmania and it would create a significant economic boost, both during construction and on completion, with the thousands of staff and students who would occupy the new facilities. Infrastructure Australia, no less, has assessed the proposal and given it a glowing endorsement. That is why I have taken this proposal to the Prime Minister personally, and he has left me in no doubt that he understands the value of the project but that any formal approach for funding must be driven by the state government. But when I have communicated this to the Premier's office, both directly and through the media, there has been a deafening silence, because state parliamentarians simply do not get it, because their staff are running the show and running it badly or because the lot of them regard the public interest as some sort of political plaything and are leaving the big federal funding announcements until closer to the state election.

Light rail is another example. Indeed, a northern suburbs link would be of tremendous benefit to greater Hobart and would link communities, save money, ease traffic congestion and help clean up the environment—and all this when we have a Prime Minister who is so openly enthusiastic about rail and who understands so clearly the benefits it would bring. Except here we are in the afterglow of a budget that saw billions spent on rail, not one cent of which went to Hobart and to Tasmania for the restoration of passenger rail. Why? Simply because the current Liberal state government, like the Labor government before it, has failed to put in any funding submission to the federal government. Moreover, just last week we saw the extraordinary revelation from the Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne, that Tasmania could be missing out on Defence contracts because the state government is not coordinating the sector. So, valuable defence contracts, for example at Prince of Wales Bay and in the north of the state, are going begging, despite the fact that this is a world-class Defence manufacturing precinct and suppliers like Incat and Taylor Bros have the capabilities and the skills to deliver Defence work.

And there is more. For instance, there is no money in the budget for the Bridgewater Bridge upgrade or water infrastructure. Frankly, the community wants to see a government that fights for its fair share of federal funding. You would think having a Liberal government in Hobart and another one in Canberra would work in our favour, but obviously it does not. Instead, we have pathetic scenes like yesterday, when the state government's response to criticism was to say that Tasmania had got plenty of investment, and that anyone who says otherwise is 'dishonest or delusional'. The Tasmanian government has also lashed out over education and claimed that the state will receive the greatest share of federal education funding per student, despite the fact that state funding is simultaneously being gutted, with the result that net funding for public schools in Tasmania is actually going down. The community deserves much better than such personal attacks and lies. It is no wonder, then, that just yesterday afternoon a constituent, who is a person of considerable standing in the community, summed it up when he texted me to say: 'Absolute incompetence. Farcical, really. How incredibly short-sighted.'

This is not hard stuff, but too often it is all just too unfathomable and difficult for Tasmanian state parliamentarians. I suppose it is okay for them because they are well paid and their needs are met. They would be thinking, 'Why should we worry about looking more interested in the community when the state election is probably not until next year?' (Time expired)