Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it pretty galling that the Australian Labor Party think that they can come into this chamber and lecture this government, the Morrison coalition government, on jobs. Let's turn our minds back to a very dark time in my own state's history and that was the time when we had a Labor government in Tasmania. Indeed, we had a Labor-Greens minority government for four years in Tasmania.

When I first came to this place I spoke in my maiden speech about those dark, dark days, under the Labor-Green minority government, when jobs were being cut left, right and centre. People were leaving our state left, right and centre, because they weren't able to work locally. This was a period of complete economic disaster and fiscal mismanagement in Tasmania.

Senator McKim interjecting—

Thousands of jobs were lost, Senator McKim, over that four-year period. Tasmania had the highest unemployment rate in the country. There were cuts to nurses. There were cuts to the police force. There were cuts to teachers, Senator McKim, and other essential Public Service positions—