Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, this is a serious moment today, and the Greens can just make it as a statement of fact that the Premier has brought this on himself. He has had repeated opportunities to listen to the people of Tasmania and he has repeatedly refused to do that. Poll after poll have made it abundantly clear that Tasmanians do not and will not support a new stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart. People understand the devastation that it will cost Tasmanians for generations to come. When we saw the Budget delivered last week, we saw in black and white the true costs that are going to come if Jeremy Rockliff and the Liberals under him continue with a new stadium in Macquarie Point.
What they have committed to is 2500 extra public service cuts. That is 2500 jobs out of a public service that is running on the smell of an oily rag after over a decade of the Liberals’ underfunding and mismanagement. He is committed to proceeding with privatising some of our government businesses. These are the businesses that we hold in trust for Tasmanians. They have been built by generations of Tasmanian people and in the public interest they provide us with services that we need and that Tasmanians deserve to keep, because we know that if he goes ahead with privatising any of those services, it will mean the services they provide for Tasmanians will cost more and will be lower quality. That is what happens every single time we privatise services.
He has also already introduced, in successive budgets now, efficiency dividends, which are a cut by another name, and that is exactly why we repeatedly see the removal of staff in a secretive, stealthy way from providing critical services in education, housing, health, child protection, and environmental protection. These services have already been cut, and on top of that, he proposes to cut an extra 2500 public sector jobs. The reason he is doing this is to fund a new stadium that Tasmanians do not want and do not need.
Later today when we get there, I will deliver the Greens’ alternative budget, and show there is another way that this Premier has warped priorities. He has repeatedly made choices that have affected Tasmanians’ lives for the worst. People are suffering. You only had to hear what happened at the Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS) Budget breakfast to understand how devastating this Liberal Budget under Jeremy Rockliff will be, and already is, for those services who are fronting people in our community who are struggling the most. They are doing the work of government and they do not even know if they will exist. They had to flick through the budget papers to find out if they would even exist – the level of disrespect.
When we are talking about Jeremy Rockliff and disrespect, I speak on behalf of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people who have spoken to me and are deeply outraged at another broken promise from a non‑Aboriginal person in power. Jeremy Rockliff promised to deliver a treaty and he has walked away from that promise. That is on top of the broken promises he made to Tasmanians at the election, where he promised to cap spending on a stadium to $375 million. He has lied repeatedly since then, continuing to pretend that that will happen.
He is pushing through corrupted legislation, trying to ram through a stadium that Tasmanians do not want at whatever cost. The Labor party has said that they will support it unconditionally. The Greens stand firm on this. We stand against a new stadium because what is in this Budget is a disaster and a debt spiral for Tasmania for generations to come.
They have up to $10 billion on the books and they chose to knowingly put in $2 billion of debt over the next decade. That is what will come to Tasmanians. It could have been avoided, will be avoided, must be avoided, and we will support this debate.
Time expired.
