ADJOURNMENT

Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (20:01): I love my country, but I love my state—my home state of Tasmania—even more. That's why, with an issue we're facing in northern Tasmania, I just cannot understand the state Liberal government not standing up for Tasmania and, in particular, not standing up for northern Tasmania. Northern Tasmania needs investment, confidence and jobs.

It needs governments at every level, whether it's your local government, your state government or our national government, to be making sure there is a level playing field and that new opportunities are not talked down. That's why the Rushy Lagoon project matters. At a time when our region has been hit by the loss of more than 200 jobs at Liberty Bell Bay and 42 jobs from Boag's brewery in Launceston, I just don't understand why an investment of $140 million into northern Tasmania is not welcomed by the state government.

I don't understand why it's not supported and I don't understand why it's not being treated seriously. This project is expected to create more than 190 jobs over the life of this investment. That's with their present plans, but I know from conversations about that investment that there are potentially a lot more jobs—different jobs but more jobs—that will come to fruition.

These are real jobs in regional communities—jobs for contractors, planting crews, field surveyors, transport operators, sawmill workers and local businesses that service the forestry sector. It will bring capital into the north-east, support local supply chains and strengthen Tasmania's role in sustainable timber production. At a time when families in George Town, Launceston and across the north of the state are feeling the pressure of these job losses and the economic uncertainty, that is exactly the kind of investment that we should be encouraging.

Not only have we got Liberty Bell Bay leaving Bell Bay, but we've got Rio Tinto Comalco trying to negotiate with Hydro Tasmania and the state government to retain their presence in northern Tasmania. To people who live in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, 200-plus jobs—maybe 240 jobs—and another 42 jobs may not mean very much, but to northern Tasmanians and to Tasmanians that means a hell of a lot.

Boag's brewery are leaving on 4 November—an icon for northern Tasmania. They may say that they are going to take the name and continue brewing. I'm not a beer drinker, frankly—let's be honest—but the reality is it will not taste the same when it's not brewed in Tasmania with our pristine water.

A project like Rushy Lagoon is not just a land transaction. There were cries about foreign ownership. I understand those opposite are concerned about One Nation, but that property has been held in foreign ownership since 1997.

It is not prime real estate, which is the classification under the control of the state government. Over the last decade it's been on the market a number of times. No reclassification of that land has ever been undertaken.

We have this investment that, yes, is going to put some of that land—about 50 per cent of it; maybe a little bit more—into plantation, which is an investment in renewable energy. It's about renewing the interest in timber, where, quite frankly, since the Howard government, the timber industry in Tasmania has been attacked from every single side, and this is actually an investment in those workers, the sawmillers, and is going to deliver for Northern Tasmania.

People talk about the north-eastern farming. I actually come from a family who were farmers in that very area. We hear the claims that schools and saleyards are going to close.

The reality is there are already negotiations going on to lease the land that is currently being used for grazing and for raising cattle. There are already negotiations to purchase the cattle that are currently on that property which, as I understand, are all going very well. This investment is also going to be in revegetation of that land and improving that land.

There are also quite a lot of houses and infrastructure that is just not being cared for. But what we hear from the state Liberals and the federal senator—who actually was awake; it was good to hear that he was awake and took an interest in this—is that they don't believe that this land is of prime produce and should be protected. But they also have not come clean as to who the investor that they believe has been outbid on this property is, nor have they come clean on how much the Tasmanian investor was prepared to pay for that property.

Three weeks ago I stood very happily outside a construction of new homes using Tasmanian timber, with Danny Murphy, who is from the Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union, the TFTU, and is leader of the CFMEU manufacturing division in Tasmania. His message was very clear: resource security is job security. This is a project that should be seen by the state government and anyone else who has been critical as a win-win for Northern Tasmania.

That is why the Tasmanian Liberal government and Senator Colbeck and others should be supporting this project. It is good for the north-east and it's good for primary industry. No saleyards are going to close.

No schools are going to close. A $140 million investment should be welcomed and it should be supported. Creating jobs, growing businesses and attracting new investment is what we do and what we should be supporting every single day.

Do your due diligence, but you should not be taking a political stance because you're trying to protect someone who you won't come clean about. We don't know, but I suspect an attachment to the Liberal Party in Tasmania. What we shouldn't be seeing is political grandstanding at the cost of potential good-value, highly-skilled jobs, or of making sure that northern Tasmania is still a welcoming place for investment.

They should be doing everything that they can—and there have been many opportunities thus far, where the state Liberals have worked with this government to bring about good outcomes for Tasmania. And I will always acknowledge that. But when they're playing party political games—and I understand they must be scared of One Nation, and what they may do, potentially, with their capacity to win any House of Reps seats or to hold the Senate seats that they have.

Our responsibility as elected members, whether we're in this chamber, in the Australian Senate, in the federal parliament, or in our state parliament, is to do what is in the best interest of Tasmanians. That's what disappoints me—that they're not prepared to put aside their personal connections to whoever this mystery buyer might have been to see that that investment is going to change that property for the better.

There is no-one in this place who knows the north-east of Tasmania better than I do, with my family connections to that area. I am disappointed, and I'm calling on the government senators in this place from Tasmania who are not supporting this project and talking down Tasmania— (Time expired)