Will Hodgman’s Agenda 09

Will Hodgman Libs Leader
A government I lead will not spend a billion dollars on a new hospital on the Hobart waterfront. It is the wrong decision.

We believe that Tasmanians did not get the best deal when Labor renegotiated the pokies monopoly deal with Federal Hotels.

AGENDA 2009
RESPONSE BY THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION,
WILL HODGMAN, MP
WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2009
Response by the Leader of the Opposition, Will Hodgman MP to the Premier’s Address
Wednesday 4 March 2009

Tasmania is facing challenges, but a new dawn is in sight.
Where there is strong and visionary leadership.
Where there is hope and optimism about our future.
Where our State reaches its full potential.
We can be so much better than what we are.
I’ve had enough of Tasmanians being forced to accept second best and being told
that this is basically as good as it gets.
I’ve had enough of our community being torn apart by a government that feeds
on division, not unity.
I’ve had enough of a government that is too weak to tackle the tough issues
because it is so fixated on the short term.
We have everything we need to be so much better than this.
We have the people, the natural environment, the climate and the character to
take our rightful place in the world.
A place where more people want to be.
And where Tasmanians feel proud about the place they live in, and about the
Government that leads them.
That is my vision.
Now let me outline my agenda for making that a reality.
My agenda is to give business the environment to grow.
My agenda is to build infrastructure for our future.
My agenda contains a commitment to sustainable development at the forefront
of government decision making.
My agenda is to give Tasmanians the quality health and education systems they
deserve.
My agenda is to protect our lifestyle and strengthen our communities.
My agenda is to implement radical reform for open government.
And I am prepared to make the tough decisions that will unlock Tasmania’s
potential.
In times like these Tasmanians need a Premier and a Government who will do
what is right, not what is popular; and who will do what is needed, not what is
politically motivated.
Tasmania is facing significant challenges.
But now is the time to make our community stronger. To work together, to unlock
our potential.
BACKING TASMANIAN BUSINESS
I fundamentally believe that a strong economy where business and enterprise can
prosper is the best way to build a smarter, stronger and fairer Tasmania.
The time is now, right now, to build infrastructure that creates jobs and
investment, which provides the environment for business to grow, and unlocks
the potential of our regions.
I am backing Tasmanians and Tasmanian businesses to see us through these
challenging economic times.
And in Tasmania, so much of our economic engine room is the small business
sector.
My agenda is to ensure we have the most competitive business environment in
the country.
I simply do not believe that we have got it right in Tasmania, and that there is
more we can do, especially with payroll tax and land tax, and I will work with
business and industry over the next 12 months to build the platform for reform to
achieve this goal without sacrificing state revenues to maintain the essential
services that Tasmanians desperately need.
It’s about being smarter and more efficient.
We must give Tasmanian businesses a real advantage but also attract new
investment here and to generate greater business activity, investment and jobs.
Our agenda focuses on what we can do to achieve that objective.
And, in conjunction with business and industry, we will work together on a plan to
get government out of the road of small business.
It is Tasmanian business that I back to get Tasmania moving.
We must cut red‐tape and pointless regulations. It is tying up business.
We will, this year, commission a task force to take the razor to red‐tape,
government waste and inefficiency.
Our planning system is not inviting to investors.
It must be reformed.
Too many exciting new developments fall over, too many opportunities are lost.
We do need an independent planning commission, but it must be funded
properly, so that it can make decisions within clear and enforceable timeframes.
My agenda for 2009 has planning reform at its centerpiece.
After years of review, and missed opportunity, the time to get it right is now.
Another way to ensure Tasmania is best placed to achieve our full potential when
the economy recovers is to embark on a program of government restraint now.
We believe in smaller and more efficient bureaucracy that is responsive to the
community’s needs.
A government I lead will take the axe to government waste. We will make the
tough decisions that are necessary.
We will cut State Government advertising budgets, travel costs, and we will
reduce the size of the government car fleet.
In the current economic climate, we need to sit down with our most handsomely
paid bureaucrats and negotiate a wage freeze.
And it should also apply to elected politicians.
THE ROYAL HOBART HOSPITAL
Mr Speaker,
A government I lead will not spend a billion dollars on a new hospital on the
Hobart waterfront.
It is the wrong decision.
This government stands condemned not only for its gross policy failure, but also
its inability to properly manage a project of this size and importance in
challenging economic times.
For a fraction of the cost of their plan, we can increase the capacity of the Royal
Hobart Hospital, provide new state of the art facilities, make use of the $100
million already spent at the current site over the last two decades, protect our
working port and Hobart business districts, and have more to invest in Tasmania’s
appallingly under‐resourced Tasmanian hospital network.
But, Mr Speaker, a government I lead will do so much more for the health and
well‐being of Tasmanians.
We must do much more to keep people out of hospitals in the first place.
For a state that has the world’s cleanest air, the best produce, our spectacular
outdoor environment, you’d also think we’d be some of the healthiest people on
the planet.
But sadly, we are a long way from that.
It is a huge drain on our State. It denies Tasmanians the opportunity to reach
their potential.
An agenda for a healthy Tasmania, with innovative and aggressive preventative
health policy will be a centerpiece of my government’s agenda to keep people
well and out of hospital.
We will establish a Health Promotion Foundation to bring about change.
This Foundation, funded by the private and public sectors and independent of
government, will end the ad hoc approach to preventative health care in this
State and lead the charge in developing a healthier Tasmania, through
investment, education and practical assistance.
And it is our responsibility to intervene early with children who are showing signs
of an unhealthy future.
Mark my words, this is as much about our economy as it is about our health.
But it is also about building a healthy Tasmania.
WATER
Mr Speaker,
I agree entirely that we must capture and use our precious water supply so much
better.
We need to invest, and we need to innovate to usher in a new dawn for emerging
industries and to achieve our potential.
We must build infrastructure for the future.
I have consistently said that my agenda involves a new era for irrigated
agriculture.
We have abundant water resources. Climate change will drastically change the
pattern of agriculture in mainland states.
Tasmania should invest now to build capacity as a supplier of high value crops
that will rapidly become harder to grow on the mainland.
I condemn the opportunities that have been wasted over the past ten years while
our opponents failed to advance water development. They promised in 1998 to
drought proof Tasmania. They have failed to deliver, and can only now talk of the
next 10 years.
The government I lead will drought proof Tasmania, and will not spend ten years
talking about it.
Our grid of water networks, small and large; capturing, storing and moving water
will drought proof Tasmania and allow us to realize the potential to become
Australia’s food bowl.
We will make major water developments that are part of this network projects of
State significance to ensure they get the planning priority they deserve.
And while the government continues to investigate ways to send our water
interstate, I believe it is imperative that Tasmanians benefit first and foremost
from this resource.
We should explore ways to move water from the West Coast to our farming
heartland and beyond to the East Coast. We have expertise already here in
Tasmania that should be applied to this State building task.
There is a huge opportunity here to bolster Tasmania’s already great reputation
for world‐class produce.
But to do that, we need the water where it is needed. And we also need good
roads and rail to carry the production.
INFRASTRUCTURE
We must invest in productive long term infrastructure. Infrastructure that will
continue to generate wealth and productivity long after it has been built.
You can build infrastructure when economic times are tough but you can’t build
the economy without proper infrastructure.
We need to put in place the infrastructure that will help us realize our potential
when the economic tide turns again.
That includes a four lane Midland Highway; a policy Labor have ridiculed, because
they believe that Tasmanians should settle for a goat track, for second best.
This is a long term vision that a Hodgman Liberal Government won’t shy away
from.
A vital arterial route in this state, a so‐called national highway, in a substandard
condition, and a piece of road that sadly sees too many accidents.
Tasmania deserves better, and we are committed to delivering a safer road, and
one which vastly improves our transport corridor and unlocks our potential.
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr Speaker,
To ensure that we emerge from our current challenges early, maximizing the
potential to grow, we must invest in our regions where so much of our wealth is
generated.
Our policy agenda will involve a plan to unlock the potential of our regions, across
the state.
For example, the West Coast. A region that drives our economy but whose
potential has not been fully realized because of a lack of investment in productive
infrastructure investment for decades.
This is a region that is crying out for investment in productive infrastructure – in
its roads and port, in energy and broadband.
Because we recognise that we must invest in our regions that generate our
wealth, regional development plans, including a West Coast infrastructure
strategy will be high on my government’s agenda.
Mr Speaker,
The government I lead will make the right long‐term decisions for our State.
Tasmania cannot afford a government that wants to ram through poor decisions
that divide our state and rob us of our potential.
I believe in protecting our precious natural environment and showcasing it with
authenticity and excellence, not the dirty and divisive way that Labor go about
things.
THE TARKINE
A Hodgman Liberal Government will not build Labor’s Tarkine Loop Road.
We must protect the things about the Tarkine that make the region so special
while promoting its tourism potential.
The government’s proposal has not only divided the community but raised
concerns that it will destroy some of the very qualities that we want to promote.
Our plan will invest $23 million in the region in a far more strategic and targeted
way to upgrade existing roads and amenities, promote capital expenditure in ecotourism,
better market this jewel, and provide additional resources for the parks
and wildlife service to ensure a superior visitor experience.
We have a better way to unlock the tourism potential of this region.
And when it comes to tourism, I say that now is the time, with the dollar low, to
be aggressively promoting our product on the mainland.
We continue our call to the government to invest in an aggressive tourism
campaign to boost tourism, our economy, and protect jobs in our regions.
And we need to be aggressively promoting Tasmania as a place to live. I want
Tasmania to be a magnet for young, innovative and productive people.
Mr Speaker,
We have a strong policy agenda for the people of Tasmania.
We are delighted that the government takes up a lot of our policy ideas, and we
encourage them to continue doing so.
My vision and our policy agenda gives Tasmanians the quality health and
education systems they deserve; protects our lifestyle and strengthens our
communities.
Where we make Tasmania the envy of the nation, and a magnet to people from
all over the world.
But people won’t want to come here if we cannot even get the basics right.
If you want examples of mediocrity ruining our future, look no further than health
and education after ten years of Labor.
We are spending more each year, but getting worse results.
But under our Agenda for a smarter, stronger and Fairer Tasmania, as an absolute
priority every Tasmanian child will be able to read and write as well as any other
child in Australia;
Our policy for a Smarter Tasmania will deliver smaller class sizes, more support for
teachers, more support for students who fall behind, and removing impediments
to children actually getting to school, such as the cost of their bus fares.
We must give our children every chance to achieve their potential.
And I will take strong and decisive action to protect our children, including
removing a child permanently from an abusive environment if those who are
supposed to be caring for them are unwilling or incapable of providing that
environment.
I am a father of three, and it is them, and indeed every child in this state, who
motivate me to do this job.
And having previously worked in the U.K.to prevent child abuse, the protection
and welfare of children is an issue very close to my heart.
Mandatory screening laws to protect children from predators will be introduced
within the first Parliamentary session of a Hodgman Liberal Government.
It is a disgrace that it still has not happened in Tasmania.
We have a commitment to a Fairer Tasmania, to further strengthen our
community, which includes better support for people with disabilities, better
community transport, and restored health services close to home for our rural
communities, and boosting volunteering.
We will take repeat offender and dangerous drivers off our roads by taking their
cars.
We will implement double demerit points on long weekends and public holidays
to encourage safer driving behavior.
We will ensure that victims of crime get a voice on the parole board, and that sex
offenders get sentences more in keeping with what the community demands.
And no sex offender sent to jail will be released until they have undergone proper
treatment to address their behavior.
OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE AND HONEST GOVERNMENT
A cornerstone of my agenda is radical reform for open and accountable and
honest government in Tasmania.
We can be world leaders in this area, and my commitment is to that vision
becoming a reality.
It’s what we need to bring our community together after the division, the disgrace
and shame of recent years that has been wreaked on the people of Tasmania
under a Labor Government.
We will establish an independent ethics and anti corruption authority;
We need a strict new code of conduct for ministers, their advisers, and public
servants that will actually be enforced.
And we commit to radical reform to make Open Government the law in Tasmania;
to lift the veil of secrecy and the stench of scandal; and to give people back their
government.
Our Open Government agenda is to fundamentally change the culture of
government in Tasmania.
We are proposing adopting world’s best practice freedom of information rights.
Information will be provided on time, or it’s free.
For the first time ever, Tasmanians will have access to more detailed information
about what is being discussed in Cabinet.
We will instill a culture and practice where it is expected government agencies
will take affirmative steps to make information public and to proactively inform
the public of government activity.
There will be more support for the Ombudsman, more powers for the Auditor
General and a Public Information Commissioner.
We will give government back to the Tasmanians it is supposed to serve.
THE TOO‐HARD BASKET
Mr Speaker,
What I have outlined so far today is a constructive and achievable vision for the
future, and an agenda for a new dawn for Tasmania, which is within reach.
However in order for us to realize our full potential we have to be prepared to
tackle the tough issues. The ones that have been in the too‐hard basket for too
long.
And while we will not claim to have all the answers now, I will not allow these
issues to fester unresolved just because politically, that might be the easy thing to
do.
Tasmanians deserve better.
They are difficult issues and there is no easy answer.
But with strong leadership and by working together with the community we can
bring resolution to these tough issues and move forward together.
Response by the Leader of the Opposition, Will Hodgman MP to the Premier’s Address
Wednesday 4 March 2009
18
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
And I will start with local government, a sector that has had its throat slit by
Labor.
Many councils are bleeding in the gutter. What Local Government needs now is
leadership from their government, but they’re not getting it.
This Premier runs a mile from tough issues.
Liberal policy is no forced amalgamations.
But a Hodgman Liberal Government will assist and support councils who are
looking for better ways to deliver services, whilst still maintaining strong
connections with their local communities. Regional partnerships; resource and
expertise sharing; or if by the Councils’ choice, even amalgamation.
We will stand by local government as they investigate their own models to
overcome the challenges going forward. We’ll support them with resources to do
so, because they need that support.
We need to look at reforms for the future to keep rates down, whilst ensuring
that local government is sustainable for the future and people are getting the
services that they need, and the social connections that they value.
I’m prepared to put local government reform right back on the political agenda in
2009, even if it’s too hard for Labor, because this is the time to ensure that we
are best placed to achieve our potential.
GAMING
We believe that Tasmanians did not get the best deal when Labor renegotiated
the pokies monopoly deal with Federal Hotels.
It was not tested by the market.
And we think that problem gambling is a real issue in Tasmania.
As people know, I have put poker machines and our concerns about problem
gambling on the Liberals agenda in 2009, and we are developing a policy, and will
consult with all stakeholders, to work out a better outcome for the Tasmanian
community.
It’s been months now since the Gaming Commission handed government details
of how to enhance protection for problem gamblers in this State and they still
have not acted. That is not good enough.
It might be a tough issue for this government to deal with, but we are putting it
right down on the table. You don’t have a choice.
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM
And, unlike the Premier, I will not run away from the issue of the size of
Parliament just because it’s difficult.
I know that some people may not want a larger Parliament.
I know that there are more pressing issues facing us; in our economy, our schools
and our hospitals.
They are the priorities in our agenda.
And I well know of what a cynical and divisive political campaign we can expect
from a Premier more worried about the interests of his own political party, and
less about the interests of the people this Parliament serves.
But it is ironic though, when no better argument for examining the size of our
Parliament sits opposite, with such a disgraced and diminished pool of talent that
is charged with the immense responsibility of running executive government in
this state.
So, on this issue, which should be about finding the very best model of
government to achieve Tasmania’s potential, I will not be deterred from plotting
out a road‐map for how the whole Tasmanian community can be part of a way
forward.
Reforming Parliament is not about the next election or the short term political
advantage.
It should be about the best thing for Tasmania and ensuring that all Tasmanians,
including those in regional communities have a better voice in this place.
We believe the reduction in the size of Parliament ten years ago was a mistake.
But to ensure we make the right decisions on this issue, our plan is to establish an
independent Board of Inquiry into the size and effectiveness of the Tasmanian
Parliament.
We should take this out of the hands and the vested interests of politicians.
We should put all the facts on the table, and hear what the people have to say.
And if that inquiry recommends that Tasmania’s Parliament should be changed,
so that it can better serve the Tasmanian people, then as Premier, I will commit to
fixing it.
But the Tasmanian people have my guarantee that any change will not cost one
dollar more.
It can be paid for by slashing the army of faceless, unelected minders Labor has
built up since 1998.
And we will empower the Auditor‐General to monitor these changes, and ensure
there is no additional cost to the State Budget.
Premier Bartlett has admitted that this issue is just too hot for him to handle.
But I will not be driven by the interests of my political party, but rather by the
courage to face up to a tough issue, and make the right decisions in the interests
of the people we represent in this place.
However, Mr Speaker, as with other issues in the too‐hard basket, I’m going to
make him face up to these challenges because it is in the best interests of
Tasmania.
I want to lead a government that takes on the too‐hard basket, finds a way
forward, and brings the community with it.
In Opposition, I will be making this an agenda item for 2009, in government we
will implement a solution.
We will make sure the government can’t run and hide anymore.
CONCLUSION
Mr Speaker,
Today I have outlined my vision for Tasmania, and my agenda.
Tasmania is facing challenges, but a new dawn is in sight.
I am optimistic about our future.
I am extremely confident in Tasmanians ability to take on any challenge, or any
confront any issue, and to reach its potential.
But we need change.
We need to back business to take on the economic challenges.
We need to be smart, and strategic about how we invest in our infrastructure.
We can be a smarter, and a healthier Tasmania.
And we need a government that is open, and honest, and that involves
Tasmanians in where our state is heading.
And Mr Speaker, I am prepared to make the tough decisions that will unlock
Tasmania’s potential.
In times like these Tasmanians need a Premier and a Government that will do
what is right, not just what is popular.
That will do what is needed, not what is politically motivated.
To make that new dawn, that is within reach, a reality.