Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Madam Deputy Speaker, this motion is a bit of ‘puff and promotion’, isn’t it? Really. It could have been used for good. Of everything that is happening ‑ we have a housing crisis, a climate crisis, cost-of‑living crisis; use it as a Dorothy Dixer equivalent of a motion and put something forward, rather than just this absolute waste of time for this parliament. It is completely pathetic.
We have also been hearing all morning, throughout Question Time, ‘Oh, we have to have accurate information, we have got an obligation’. Yes, we do, but here we have this completely taken out of context. A simple Google search can show you that this is not even factually accurate. This is an absolutely appalling use of this parliament’s time and of Tasmanians’ taxpayers’ money.
Mr Abetz – Coalition partner running defence for you.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER – Order, leader of government business, I remind you that you are also sitting on warnings.
Ms BADGER – Seeing as we are here, we will not say no to an opportunity to talk about reckless spending and a bit of puff promotion, Liberals recklessly spending $4 million on a chocolate fountain. That is what future Tasmanians need when they cannot put a roof over their head, a bit of reckless spending. $100 billion stadium, that is fine when you cannot put food on the table. $200 million now on a cable way from $60 million initially, still waiting for that revised business case to prove that new expense that you have gone to the federal government for because Tasmanians actually deserve that. It is not only reckless expenditure, it is reckless finance management, and a fair bit of reckless transparency.
Paragraph (3) of this motion touches on marketing. What about that over half a million dollars that was spent on a private company, the Tasmanian Walking Company, to help promote its Three Capes Walk? That is a private company that charges $4000 per person to complete that walk and it is largely booked out. That same Three Capes Walk is actually making losses over the past three financial years. In fact, the cost of maintaining that track have far exceeded the revenue that it has bought in from people booking to walk that track. Talk about reckless expenditure when that is the same business model that the government is relying on for the Tyndall Range walk, which, again, miraculously, is just completely immune to inflation, is it? No major project is. Yet again, the Liberals need to stop being reckless and table that revised business case as well.
In fact, here, the 2030 Strong Plan. This is from 2024. It has in here, this is part of the tourism aspect of it, reaffirming its commitment of $30 million to the Cradle cable‑way visitor experience for the master plan. It is now $45 million. This is not even barely 12 months old. It is talking about the Tyndall Range walk that is going to start construction by mid‑2025, subject to all approvals, none of which have actually been submitted for yet.
Some of this motion was initially actually talking about small businesses, for which there have been a number of grants and rounds that this government has been out spruiking. Where is the due diligence, the fairness, and the competitive example? The member for Clark, Mr Willie, has already touched on that, so I will not go into it any further.
A lot of those businesses, particularly the tourism small businesses, rely on accredited trained employees to come into that, such as guides. Yet our TAFE does not have Cert 4 in guiding, or Certs 3 and 4 in outdoor leadership, which are absolutely important and help maintain the credibility of our tourism industry here in Tasmania. TAFE is completely falling apart. What is happening? The CEO has just walked away.
We have small businesses, mum and dad businesses, in the automotive industry that need to be able to have trade apprentices going through their doors. They need to be able to upskill so that people can actually service the growing number of EVs on our road. They cannot do that. There is nowhere to do it here in the south. We are looking at teachers facing the axe coming up as well.
There is absolute systemic failure of the funding that has been slashed around and that is why it is absolutely reckless. There are so many other priorities that we could be using to spend our money on, such as bridging the digital divide here in Tasmania. We have to make sure that Tasmanians have the digital literacy as well as basic connectivity to be able to go forward.
Small businesses cannot function and take payments unless they have connectivity, particularly, in peak season. Look at what is happening on the Tasman Peninsula and the massive public meeting that they have just had. It is the same in St Helens, Swansea, and, I am sure, in many other small communities. When they see the increase in tourism visitation in peak season, the internet connection goes down. This week, or perhaps last; Tasmania, the big announcement. We are going to be the startup capital of Australia; ask them what internet connection we need to get the fundamentals right first.
I also want to point out paragraph (4) of this motion, ‘Labor’s plan to slash the government investment in this vital sector would send a shiver down the spine of the nearly 43,000 Tasmanian jobs it employs.’ Fair, but what do you think you are doing, inducing anxiety into the GBE workers, the public service workers who have absolutely no certainty in their future either?
This has been an absolutely tremendous opportunity to not achieve anything for this parliament and the outcome of Tasmania. We really need to think about what we are doing a little bit further. As to the amendment, it also does not matter because that also does not achieve anything for Tasmania’s future.
Amendment agreed to.
