Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

If that is supposed to be a confidence booster for Senator Conroy after the debacle of his disgraceful performance in Senate estimates last week, he has a long way to go to redeem himself.

In regard to some of Senator Conroy's comments in respect of Tasmania and the Tasmanian economy, if you want to see an economy that has been devastated by the Labor Party, in partnership with the Greens, have a look at the Tasmanian economy. Tasmania, whose economy has been absolutely done over by the Labor Party over recent years in government, particularly in partnership with the Greens, both at a federal and a state level, is the state that shows how not to operate. Senator Conroy talks about NBN contractors in trouble in Tasmania. I will tell you why they are in trouble in Tasmania: it is because of the rates they were offered under Senator Conroy's contracts to construct the NBN, rates at which they could not make any money. That is why the contractors have problems. They invested tens of thousands of dollars in equipment to build the NBN and then they could not make money.

Then of course there is the issue of asbestos in pits that Senator Conroy did not contemplate. Talk about a debacle, a mess, that was left behind by Senator Conroy in the previous government and the destruction of the Tasmanian economy by the Labor Party in combination with the Greens over the last four years. Senator Conroy has absolutely no idea. If that is supposed to be a confidence boost with his return after last week, I can tell you it is a pretty poor effort.

With respect to the comments Senator Conroy made about Senator Bushby's commitments in Tasmania, what the coalition committed to in Tasmania was to meet the NBN contract. The issue that we have in Tasmania, as I have just been saying, is that the contractor does not want to meet the contract because they cannot make any money out of the rates that they were forced into under the NBN deal. Senator Conroy tries to portray this as a breach of promise by the coalition, yet it is a failure of the previous government in their set-up of the NBN and a complete misrepresentation of what was going to be offered to the Tasmanian people as part of their rollout of the NBN. It is a complete and utter failure.

With respect to the issue of the day—that is, Qantas—the Labor Party just do not get it. They expect a 21st century business to run on last-century regulation.

Senator Kim Carr interjecting—

Senator Kim John Carr should listen to what is being said here—

Opposition senators interjecting—