Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I note from the Commonwealth Grants Commission report on GST revenue sharing that there has been a very slight decrease of 0.1 per cent in Tasmania. Of course, the state government in Tasmania is blaming the federal government for all its woes. That is entirely wrong. The state Labor-Green government has announced a $270 million cut, which is equivalent to 2,300 jobs, possibly front line jobs—police, teachers, nurses—and possible forced redundancies. This is of its own accord, because it has created a budget black hole. It has done it regularly and consistently year in, year out. The Labor-Green government does not know how to manage the economy.

In fact, it is worse than that. They are trashing the Tasmanian economy. If you think it is bad now, it is going to get worse based on all the predictors, based on small business confidence going down and based on the fact that unemployment is going up, particularly in the north and the north-east of Tasmania and in the rural and regional parts of Tasmania. People know. They are feeling the heat. Why is this? It is because the Labor-Greens government do not know how to manage the budget. They do not know how to manage the economy.

David Bartlett, the former Premier, got out. Why did he get out? People have different views on this and I am not going to express all those tonight, but he got out early. He got out because he was responsible for this, together with the current Premier, Lara Giddings, who was then the Deputy Premier and was in the cabinet and made the decisions where they overspent time and again, year in and year out. Of course she is responsible. David Bartlett has moved on but Lara Giddings is now the Premier of Tasmania and she cannot wash her hands and say, ‘That was then and this is now.’ She was part of that decision-making process and she failed dismally. You cannot just say that this $25 million cut to the GST payments to Tasmania next year and the year after is the cause of all the woe. That argument is simply unsustainable.

Their approach to forestry and forestry workers in Tasmania is appalling. They have undermined that industry. That industry have been hurt and put down and their future is very grim. This is because the Labor-Greens government has nothing to offer this industry but job cuts and an end to further forestry and harvesting activities throughout Tasmania. This is their agenda. The Greens tail is wagging the dog. In fact, the Greens hand is very heavy now on the shoulder of the Labor government. There are 10 members of the Labor Party in the lower house and five members of the Greens and they are as one in the trashing that they are putting the Tasmanian economy through and the hurt, pain and suffering that they are imposing on the Tasmanian people, in particular families—mums and dads.

Particularly I want to highlight the north-east. There are a lot of people in the north-east. They deserve better. That has been a very vibrant and resilient community, and I congratulate the mayor, Barry Jarvis, and the local community for persevering. They are trying. They are fighting. They are trying to create a future for themselves. But under the Labor-Greens government it does not appear as though there is any light at the end of the tunnel or any light on the hill. This Labor-Greens government should be ashamed of itself. It has injected fear and trepidation, and now business confidence is towards an all-time low. It is not good enough to say that the 0.1 per cent cut over the next couple of years in the GST revenue sharing relativities report is the reason for that. That is absolute and utter nonsense. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.