HIGH-PROFILE Labor senator Penny Wong made no announcements for Northern voters on her visit to Launceston on Monday but has asked the region to give the party a chance.
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“I accept that we have to demonstrate to people that we have learnt from the mistakes that we made in government,” she said.
“We have been a much more united team than the Liberals this term. We have worked together very well as a team and we have learnt some of the lessons which Australians were right to criticise us for.
“But I’d invite your readers to look at the last three years – a lot of division on the Liberal side which is still continuing in this campaign, and the united team that Bill has led us through the last three years.”
Senator Wong was the fourth member of the federal opposition to visit Tasmania in just three weeks in the party’s bid to win the notoriously fickle seat of Bass.
She detailed Labor’s strategies to address the issues facing the state – in her words, jobs, health and education.
The party has announced it would wind back a freeze on Medicare rebates it introduced in 2013. The Liberal government has extended the measure until 2020, a move doctors have warned could see the end of bulk-billing. Labor has since committed $12.2 billion over the decade to wind the policy back.
It has also announced it would not follow the Liberals in introducing a one-off co-payment on prescription medications and, locally, will give $150 million to support the University of Tasmania relocation if the state government also gives funds.
Can Tasmanians trust the party to deliver on its promises without throwing the nation into debt?
“Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a budget where debt is $100 billion higher and the deficit is three times what Joe Hockey said it would be in 2014,” she said.
“They’ve cut $57 billion out of hospitals and given $50 billion to companies for a tax cut. It’s all about priorities.”
The state government has been lobbying on behalf of its party with Health Minister Michael Ferguson saying on Monday that Tasmania will always do better under a federal Liberal government.
“Labor’s put out policy in Tasmania that’s about supporting jobs here in Launceston, particularly with the University of Tasmania investment, as well as investment in local schools and protecting Medicare,” Senator Wong said.
“Ultimately it’s up to the Premier what sort of approach he would take if we were elected but I would hope that he would do the right thing by the people that elect him.”
