Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am absolutely delighted to respond to the motion that Senator Urquhart has moved to take note of answers by Senators Ronaldson, Cormann and Fifield. Let me dispense very quickly, if I may, with the questions by Senator Faulkner to Senator Cormann. Senator Faulkner quite correctly said that there is a statutory period of time—six sitting days, which expire next Tuesday—and I think it was a very good dialogue between the two senators, with one saying that, yes, he understood it and he would be responding, and Senator Faulkner, with his seniority, reminding Senator Cormann of his responsibilities.

What I want to focus on with some more detail is the questions put by Senator Urquhart to Senator Ronaldson with regard to the situation in Tasmania. As you know, Deputy President, I had a very keen interest in activities in Tasmania. I had a business in that place. I employed over 260 staff. I have to say to you that, during my entire tenure in Tasmania, in a very multifaceted business, never once did I have the state Labor government or any of their representatives come to me to see if they could assist in any way to encourage further employment. One business alone—the Burger King business—which I had as part of my Shell business in Hobart employed some 60 young people, and in all instances it was their first job.

I will tell you who my biggest clients were, Deputy President, because it is a sad litany when we see where those industries now are in Tasmania. The first was the forestry industry, a renewable industry, a phenomenal industry, north and south. Triabunna is a place that our leader in the Senate, Senator Abetz, is well aware of. The Triabunna mill, on the south-east coast of Tasmania, was critical, pivotal, to the forestry industry but, as a result of a deal done between the Greens and Mr Graeme Wood—no doubt following in some way a connection with a $1.6 million donation—the Triabunna mill was cut off at the knees, ceased to be a mill and became some sort of tourist venture, and there went one of the biggest employment groups and one of the biggest sustainable industries in Tasmania at the same time. It had employed people up and down the length and breadth of Tasmania.

The second industry—one that I know was sustainable, because I watched their activities and I provided a service to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week—was the fishing industry, both in southern Tasmania up to the Derwent, over at Bicheno, right up the east coast and across the north. I probably had about two-thirds of the Tasmanian fishing clients whose fuels and lubricants I supplied. What has happened to them? Again, they are dying on the vine.

As Senator Abetz would be aware, one of my best clients was Hydro Tasmania. I sold them very high-value, high-margin lubricants. I will tell you why I did that: because the then Labor government in Tasmania were ripping money out of hydro and failing to put the funds back into much-needed maintenance. In every cloud there is a silver lining and the silver lining for me was a very, very good trade in lubricants—which should never, ever have had to be used had that not been the case.

Now I turn to another industry—the aquaculture industry. Tasmania is leading the world in the aquaculture industry, but what do we now fear? As a result of perverse environmental pressures being put on that industry, we see the lack of expansion and I fear, Senator Polley, a reduction of an industry that is capable of creating more employment in the state of Tasmania—the very points that Senator Urquhart was making in her question to Senator Ronaldson. If nothing else, Senator Urquhart could have assisted this very day in reducing the burden on households and businesses—small and large—in the state of Tasmania by getting rid of the carbon tax, which must be hurting the businesses and the households in Tasmania.

As we know, the cost of heating in Tasmania is higher because of the cold climate. Unemployment is high in Tasmania. I know the cost of electricity in Tasmania, Senator Polley: it was higher than it was in my home state of Western Australia. So when I hear Senator Urquhart talking to my side of government about creating employment opportunities, I say, thank God for the Will Hodgman-led coalition government, because it got rid of 16 years of failed Labor governments in the state of Tasmania.