Today’s visit by Bill Shorten shows that he’s just not serious about the needs of Tasmanians and that Rebecca White and her colleagues are completely ineffectual when it comes to standing up for our state.
Mr Shorten’s so called Bridgewater Bridge funding wouldn’t even build a single lane crossing over the Derwent, let alone the $576 million, four lane bridge that we are currently planning for.
Worse still, Bill Shorten has totally ignored the needs of Northern Tasmania, with not a single dollar committed to road, bridge or building projects in the North.
Why are federal and state Labor ignoring the North, just as they did in the state campaign?
Is it because Labor’s representatives like Michelle O’Byrne and Ross Hart have absolutely no clout at either a state or federal level?
Maybe it’s because Mr Shorten knows a failing Labor leader when he sees one, given he’s knifed two sitting Labor Prime Ministers, and he’s worried about throwing his support behind Ms White, who was responsible for Tasmanian Labor’s third worst election result ever.
Tasmania deserves better than crumbs from Bill Shorten.
In contrast, over the past four years, the Hodgman Liberal Government has worked with the Coalition Government to secure over $730 million for the Mersey Community Hospital, the Launceston City Deal that will underpin $280 million worth of investment in Launceston, an expanded Freight Equalisation Scheme that is supporting a boom in Tasmanian exports and major road upgrades in the North of the State.
For sixteen long years under State Labor Governments, the Tasmanian economy was in recession, 10,000 Tasmanians lost their jobs, infrastructure development stalled and the budget was a complete mess.
Today it seems Bill Shorten offers nothing different – you just can’t trust Labor to deliver for Tasmania.