Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, this is Muwinina land. It was stolen in a violent dispossession and those people are no longer with us today. I pay my respects on behalf of the Greens and acknowledge that today’s proud and strong Aboriginal people, the Palawa/Pakana, live on as custodians of this island. They continue the practices, the hopes and wisdom of a community that is tens of thousands of years old.
We have so much to learn about courage, persistence and caring for country. The Greens stand with Tasmanian Aboriginal people in their demands for justice from a colonising government that has never yet enacted the treaty that was promised. We stand with them in their demands for laws that protect country, their heritage and living landscape shaped by hundreds of generations. We applaud the strength and leadership of Uncle Jim-puralia meenamatta, Ruth Langford and others arrested for defending the ancient forests of Lutruwita from the Liberals’ destruction.
As Uncle Jim said, ‘First Nations law is in country and we are obligated to defend our law because we are country and country is us.’ We stand with them, his people and the many others appalled at the destruction of land, sea and sky country. We commit to working for truth telling of our collective history, the return of lands, and a treaty.
When we arrived back here yesterday, it felt like we had never left this place for the summer break. Despite the resignations, the changed seating, portfolios, and beards that had grown. That all changed with the Premier’s speech. It was channelled from the hard right agenda, the likes of Thatcher, Reagan and now Trump. When the Premier said yesterday, ‘To govern with a heart you need a strong economy,’ he has forgotten that to govern with a heart you actually need to have a heart.
What we saw was a Premier – in the shortest speech in recent memory for a state of the state speech – reading words with no conviction, making promises that will cut to the hearts of poor and vulnerable Tasmanians who are looking at losing essential services they desperately depend on.
The state of the state is usually where we see Premiers outline their positive vision for the year ahead. Instead, Jeremy Rockliff used it to officially announce his government’s huge lurch to the political right. Jeremy Rockliff might be Premier in name, but his speech yesterday spelled out that it is Eric Abetz, Guy Barnett and their radical right‑wing friends in Cabinet that are now pulling the strings in the Tasmanian Cabinet.
The Premier announced cuts to the public sector, privatisation of public services and assets, and giving corporations and industry free reign. This is straight out of the neo‑conservative playbook. We have been watching this play out in countries around the world for over 50 years.
The Premier was so shameless in his ideological shift that he happily directly referenced Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump’s language when he said people want government out of their lives. Well, it is not true. Tasmanians want an ambulance when they need it. They want a safe and secure place to call home. They want a reliable bus service. They want schools that give every child the chance of a bright future.
The Premier had the gall to say that he is leading a government with heart. Nothing can be further from the truth. In his distorted view of the world, he is trying to persuade us that you have to be cruel to be kind. We do not buy it. This is all about a destructive right‑wing agenda and a red carpet for corporations and the Liberals’ special interests. What he is proposing is to flog off critical government businesses, even to reach in with a mighty steel claw and privatise parts of government itself like the Lands Office. He has not told us where it will end. When the Premier says he is going to sell off the farm to deliver better quality public services, we say electricity at a fair price is service, we say access to buses is an essential service. There is no guarantee that any of those services will exist under privatisation for businesses that operate for profit.
It is a classic sign of a Liberal government on the rocks, after more than a decade of election pork‑barrelling, disastrous economic management and sweet deals for mates. The Greens are fundamentally opposed to the disturbing agenda that the Liberals have laid out yesterday. We will be fighting tooth and nail to make sure they do not get their way. We are standing strongly with workers, with unions and Tasmanians who care about this place and who will resist this move.
The Premier pulled out some of his favourite old clichés yesterday. According to him, it is just red tape that is stopping Tasmania from being his wonderland. He said this so many times it sounds like he has believed his own dishonesty. Where did he talk about the reality for Tasmanians, of record hospital wait times, of homelessness, of the extinction of species? What about the ravages of climate change that we are seeing more and more?
They were the wooden talking points of a premier who has forgotten who he is meant to be speaking for: the many people who are struggling to pay their bills – that is, if they are lucky enough to have an affordable, secure home. Those Tasmanians are anxious about the basics of everyday life. These people are not dreaming about champagne flowing in the corporate boxes at Jeremy Rockliff’s billion-dollar‑plus stadium.
We know that Tasmanian hospitals remain desperately under-funded. Every day this has real-life impacts. People are waiting longer than everyone else in the country for an ambulance. The length of time people sit in an emergency room is still getting longer.
The cost of living is hurting households and driving small businesses to the wall. The price of everything that we know is going up: bills, groceries, rents, buildings. These are all facts. If the Liberals were really prioritising Tasmanians who are struggling, we know there is so much more that they could be doing and that they could have been doing for the last decade.
Step 1: they can make everyday public services, education and public transport truly free. It is such a small cost to the overall budget that would make such a massive difference to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our community.
Step 2: they would pull all the levers that they can pull at the state level to help Tasmanians get an affordable and secure home. Housing is a fundamental human right but finding a home that does not break the bank is now one of the biggest stresses for the majority of Tasmanians. Liberals have sat on their hands for years while thousands and thousands of rental homes have been converted to Airbnbs. They stood by and watched rent prices go through the roof and saw rental supply crash. It was all forewarned. They stood by and watched. The party closest to the developers has done nothing to stop that even when there is a planning fix. So much for having a heart.
Lutruwita/Tasmania still has some of the weakest rental protection laws in the countries. Renters can still be evicted without cause. Our minimum rental household standards are callously basic. It is a shame. It is an outrage that the Liberals have knowingly done nothing about this. On top of this, they have failed year on year to build the homes that they promised the people who desperately need them. They will not muster the will and energy to build homes. Instead they are using the full force of government departments right now and many high-paid consultants to bulldoze through a billion-dollar stadium project. It says everything about their warped priorities.
Instead of fixing the real blockages to the housing crisis, the Rockliff Liberals are now claiming they need to reform the planning system as if that is what is holding back progress. Let us call that for what it is. It is cynical. It is self interested. They are giving party-donor developers what they want and not doing what is actually needed to build homes. If they were serious, we would expect to see in here legislative rights for renters, a rein-in for short-stay accommodation, building more public and social housing and dropping their focus on a billion‑dollar stadium. The community does not want it, they do not need it, and we cannot afford it.
In case you are Zooming in from Mars and this needs to be spelled out, the reason that the Liberals are not putting the needs of Tasmania first is because they are wholly focused on what their corporate mates want. We saw this so clearly with their pokies backflip. Tasmanians put tens of millions through the poker machines every year. Those parasitic machines are rigged to give money to gambling corporations. They destroy lives and livelihoods and they break up families. Despite all that, Jeremy Rockliff chose to put the pokies lobby first. He betrayed all Tasmanians by breaking his promise to introduce the pokies mandatory pre-commitment card. The slightest pressure from the gambling industry and any help that was to be there for problem gamblers has evaporated. We saw exactly the same thing from Labor in the 2018 election. We know who is pulling the strings of both these major party puppets.
For decades it has been both the Liberal and Labor politicians, many decades now in Tasmania, who have worked separately and together to put the interests of these big businesses above the long-term and short-term interests of Tasmanians and above protecting our environment. Millions of dollars in secret donations have flown to both parties. How much of those vast sums has come from the gambling industry or from developers or multinational corporations like big salmon or healthcare organisations? What is the quid pro quo? What have Tasmanians paid the price for?
Pokies are an obvious, glaring, brutal example, but the payouts obviously do not end there. Last year, the Liberals rammed through special legislation that enabled their developer donor, Tipalea, to bypass the state’s planning laws. It is a pretty clear picture: developer wants something; developer donates money to the Liberals; developer gets what they want. Job done.
We desperately need a stronger Integrity Commission now more than ever. It is not a later issue. We have to urgently clean up politics and make all politicians accountable to the people who elect them, not to wealthy donors and vested interests.
The Greens are doing what we can. Last year we passed through this bill to ensure that all donations over $1000 are made transparently to the public. It is a good start. I can assure you that we are not going to stop there.
I cannot talk about the state of our beautiful island without mentioning the fires that torched almost 100,000 hectares over the summer. They put lives and properties at risk. They destroyed Aboriginal heritage. They devastated the magnificent rainforests of Takayna and east of there. The damage that has occurred now to some of Earth’s irreplaceable natural values, especially to our ancient pines, has shocked and saddened many Tasmanians. The Greens offer our deepest thanks to everyone who worked and continue to work so hard to fight the fires and protect communities and our globally unique environment. Many of these people were volunteers and there obviously needs to be a dramatic investment in early prevention of fire. This is not something that can be subjected to a job recruitment freeze.
The fires are a terrible reminder for us all that climate change is starting to bite. It is already bringing us fear and heartbreak. This is an emergency. Tasmanians have raised their voices loud and clear. I especially pay my deep respects and acknowledge the work of young people in Tasmania who have fought so hard and raised their voices about the frightening state of the climate future that is ahead of us, indeed that we are seeing today. They want the Liberals to take real climate action now and do what we can before things get worse for us all and for future generations.
Instead of taking the ambitious action that we have to take, the Liberals are now peddling climate denial and greenwashing. They are trading in false solutions and incrementalism. They have refused to rein in the emissions of corporations. Business as usual with big emissions flowing is continuing. They have refused to work with and substantially invest in local communities and council to help planning for the increasing climate threats that are coming fast.
We have to have the ruggedising of impacts on infrastructure and communities that will inevitably come from stronger and more repeated extreme events. The Liberals are especially ignoring the big climate elephant in the room – our glorious carbon-storing native forests with globally significant tall trees are those that they are continuing to log and burn. Other states and territories have got the message. We are in a climate and biodiversity emergency and they have banned native forest logging and there is no time to waste. The Greens stand with the communities of future-minded Tasmanians and with everyone in our forest today who is putting their heart and body on the line to protect us and the forests from destruction – to stop the millions of tonnes of emissions a year that go into the atmosphere and heat it up from Forestry Tasmania’s logging and burning of native forests.
This is what real climate action looks like. The government has to end native forest logging today.
The Premier is content to flog off government businesses that operate in the public interest while he continues to support millions of subsidies to keep Forestry Tasmania afloat but instead of protecting the native forest, which other states in Australia have sensibly seen is a pathway for a safer future, the Liberals are planning to expand further into high-conservation value Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF) forests in the north-east, north and north-west. In a climate and biodiversity crisis, this is nothing but cooked. The news, I have to say, has been a galvanising force for local communities in those regions who are bewildered and outraged that the areas of local forests that they protected – some of them who formed local groups 25 years ago – are now threatened with being logged and burnt. They cannot believe it.
I have been and spoken to a number of those communities with other members of the Greens – members for Bass and Lyons – and what we hear are communities reforming groups, starting new groups, reaching out in communities, starting to have the public meetings, speaking up in outrage at what the Liberals are doing. They reject this move and communities will form and stand strong against it to fight it.
In recent weeks Tasmanians have been rightly disgusted at the animal cruelty of the aquaculture industry and seen hundreds of thousands of fish floating diseased and dead at the top of salmon pens. This is a toxic industry. It is polluting our waterways and now it is spewing up fatty chunks of dead salmon that are washing up on southern beaches. Swimmers have not been able to swim there because of the fishy stench from their bodies.
The mixed messages from the EPA were very disturbing. They spoke of an Environment Protection Authority that does not have as its first and most clear priority to put the protection of the environment first. Were it that sort of organisation, we would have expected to hear all the facts about what is going on. However, what we have heard today is news that piscirickettsia is apparently the identified organism that has caused the disease in the salmon pens. That is very bad news if that is the case for the Tasmania salmon industry because it was that particular organism that caused the collapse of the whole Chilean salmon industry and has decimated other salmon industries around the world.
This shows this is one of the outcomes of having appallingly weak environmental laws because those environmental laws are not only bad for the marine environment, they are also ultimately bad for the industries themselves. When you rely on the marine environment, you are relying on having healthy functioning ecosystems. That is not what we have in our waters around Tasmania because of the EPA’s and the Liberals’ failure to rein in the big salmon industries that we know are major donors.
Unlike the Premier, I will not ignore the state of the environment in this speech. After a decade of avoiding doing the work, the government finally released a State of the Environment Report last year. What a shocker it was and how appalling the government’s response to that was. It shames them all. What the report shows is that the past decade of Liberal government has resulted in a serious and dramatic decline in Tasmania’s natural environment. The report looked across all the themes of land, biodiversity, rivers and wetlands, air, waste, coast and marine. Most of the measures for those areas were shown to have a declining state in those essential parts of our environment.
I will focus particularly on the marine environment part of the report, which shows the deeply concerning pace of ocean heating that is happening. We are, unfortunately, in one of the hottest marine spots in the world.
Our average sea temperatures have increased 2.5 degrees from what was once called normal. Over the warm months, it can now be 3.8 degrees higher on average, so obviously the impacts of this are serious. I am sure we are all concerned –
Sitting suspended from 1 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.
Resumed from above.
Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, the sea surface temperatures over the warm months off the shores of Tasmania can be 3.8°degrees or higher on average, and the impacts can be many and serious. Just this past summer we have seen an explosion of salps, bioluminescence across the south and the east, an explosion of moon jellyfish, and we have been told by eminent scientists that these are the direct results of the massive amount of nutrients going into our waters from fish farm aquaculture combined with hot oceans. The millions of dead fish that we have seen washing up on beaches and reported in fish pens is disturbingly and unfortunately unlikely to be the end of where we are at in Tasmania.
We have been repeatedly warned by scientists this is a dangerous sign of an ocean ecosystem under pressure. It is at risk of flipping into a new site. Those are the signs of nature in distress which is exactly why the State Of The Environment report made many urgent recommendations for actions to reverse the decline across not just our marine environment, but our environment across the whole of Lutruwita/Tasmania. The Greens urged the government to give top priority to addressing all the recommendations from this report.
I will take a moment to reflect on the last year for the Greens. Our party has an amazing and proud history of achieving important outcomes for the state. It has been exciting to see how the current team of members, the new Greens members, has built on the legacy of the last 40 years of Greens in parliament.
My Deputy Leader, Vica Bayley MP, the member for Clark, has shown himself to be a remarkable parliamentarian in addition to his history as a remarkable and outspoken voice for the community and for wild places. His scrutiny of the government’s ill-advised Macquarie Point Stadium has been rigorous and detailed. He has passionately represented a range of stakeholders who have been let down by both the Liberals and Labor. He has worked hard on the massive issue of housing as a voice for renters and for people who cannot find a home. He has drawn on his long history in the conservation movement to be a powerful voice in this place for the environment and has played an important role on the Energy Committee as it undertakes its essential in-depth work about our collective futures. As leader of Greens business, Vica has been instrumental in working across this chamber on behalf of the Greens to achieve positive change for the community.
After nearly two decades on Hobart City Council, Helen Burnet is the second Greens member for Clark and she has already shown the benefits in this place of her vast experience and wide-reaching community connections. Her work on behalf of Devarshi ‘Dave’ Deka and his family played a significant role in Dave being awarded permanent residency in Tasmania. She stood firmly against the self-appointed planning overlord, Felix Ellis, in his push to undermine proper process in every area it can be found. She has been working with unions to progress a much-needed portable long service leave scheme for key industries and she is now gearing up for the fight against the government’s planned public service cuts. Helen has also pushed the government to take on important areas like tackling racism and road safety, helping to achieve real outcomes for her community and her voters like the recent speed limit reduction at Leith.
Our member for Bass, Cecily Rosol, brought her experience of a life full of caring for people into the parliament. As a foster carer, Cecily was well-placed to take on the children and young people portfolio and she has been a relentless voice in this place for them. She has played an essential role in scrutinising the government’s progress to respond to the commission of inquiry. She has continued to expose the weasel words and the excuse making we hear from the government on Ashley Youth Detention Centre and in child safety generally. In the hugely important health portfolio and as a former nurse, Cecily has been outspoken for health workers and patients, decrying the Liberals’ devastating underinvestment in essential services and cuts. She has done a fantastic job of building relationships with stakeholders across all her portfolios and she is a wonderful local member, like the work she has done on behalf of the Beauty Point Caravan Park residents.
After a decade without a Greens member for Lyons, it was so good to see Tabatha Badger MP elected. Tabatha’s collaborative strong work on the issue of family violence immediately once she started as an MP across the Chamber has been incredibly impressive. She was also responsible for taking through our bill to decriminalise begging that became law last year, which was, we would have to say, a rather complex process given the nature of this new parliament. Tabatha was known for her strong advocacy on behalf of Tasmania’s wild places before she became an MP and she has shown her depth and breadth of knowledge of Tasmania’s special protected places. She is doing a great job building the case for investment in future industries, including regenerative tourism and landscape restoration. I would also note that while all that has been going on, the film that Tabatha directed about Lake Pedder has been nominated for awards at not just one, but two, international film festivals.
Finally, our member for Hobart, the inimitable Cassy O’Connor MLC, the first Greens member for the Legislative Council and a previous member of this place for 14 years. She is a force of nature and for nature. It has been so wonderful to see Cassy in the Legislative Council become the oxygen‑clear voice for all that we stand for as a party. Cassy holds the critically important role on the Integrity Committee, a position likely to become even more important given recent announcements from the government. As our justice spokesperson, she started a campaign for long overdue reforms to quad bike and ATV laws. With the Liberal and Labor politicians both focused on cheerleading the racing industry, Cassy continues to be a strong voice for the horses and greyhounds that are abused, mistreated and neglected. That is just the beginning of our team and what we have been able to achieve in less than a year. We are very excited about the outcomes we can achieve in the year ahead.
The world is changing fast. Far‑right and conservative thinking has been supercharged by Donald Trump’s election. One of the most powerful men in the world is a narcissistic autocrat. His right‑hand man, Elon Musk, is promoting fascist movements in Europe to destabilise their governments. The United States president has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator and has changed the US into an illiberal superpower that backs Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a few short weeks, Trump has ruptured the 85‑year alliance between Europe and the United States. This bodes very ill for Australia, given our dependence on the United States. A new chaotic world order is forming around us.
We are not immune here on our tiny island. It was a shocking lurch to the right that we saw from the Premier in his speech yesterday. It is more important than ever for us to stand strong and defend our democracy. The Greens will call out and fight the creeping manipulation and control of both Liberal and Labor politicians by big corporates. We see it already in those parties, the lockstep assault on the planning scheme with a development assistance, developer panels, the support for bespoke legislation to override laws for developer mates, and their backflips on pokies reforms. That is why we must have an Integrity Commission with teeth.
I can say I think we all understand that these times will test us. We have a choice to lead together and unite to protect the values of freedom, diversity, equity and inclusion, to stand against extreme right agendas that would tear down our public institutions and hollow out public services.
The Greens’ focus will be to fight for Tasmanians who cannot afford to feed their families or find a home. We will be a voice for patients waiting in emergency rooms. We will be defending this island’s wild places, our forests from loggers, our oceans and waters from the toxic salmon industry, and world heritage wilderness which we will look after for the planet, from privatisation. A key part is getting the dirty money and secret deals out of politics. We will do everything we can to do that. We will not be silenced or shut down, and neither will the communities we represent. We will prevail.
