Legislative Council, Thursday 31 October 2024

Mr PRESIDENT - Just to clarify, because of the motion, the member for Murchison is still on her feet as second reading contributor, so the member for Murchison gets the call and then all other members from then on, in which to make a second reading contribution.

Ms FORREST - Mr President, my contribution will be brief as I have said most of the things that need to be said as part of this entire debate; once, in relation to potential referral to the committee and again in my previous comments in this debate.

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Failures of governance are almost always intertwined with poor culture and both tend to have deep roots.

Tasmania's Premier Jeremy Rockliff is, and has been often referred to as, 'a good bloke' and at a personal level he is. However, this state needs more than a 'good bloke' leading our state and governing for all Tasmanians.

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Legislative Council, Tuesday 29 October 2024

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - I move -

That the Legislative Council:

(1) Notes the Research brief by Dr Carmel Hobbs, published in November 2022 titled Young, in love and in danger - Teen domestic violence and abuse in Tasmania;

(2) Notes the seven recommendations in the research brief; and

(3) Calls on the government to provide a formal response to each of the recommendations that includes actions the government will take in response to each recommendation. 

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Legislative Council, Monday 21 October 2024

Mr President, I wish to raise an issue on adjournment regarding TasPorts – I was considering including this in my noting of the GAA Report, however it is a little unclear as to when I will be able to deliver that.

Due to this uncertainty and after listening to the TasPorts CEO on ABC radio I found his comments not reflective of the experience of many TasPorts key stakeholders and customers in my electorate – many of which I will speak about when I note the Report hopefully in coming weeks – and on this occasion I am not speaking about King Island.

Mr President, I wish to raise an issue on behalf of the West Coast community about TasPorts actions in another of my small LGAs.

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"The Montello Primary School community feel "disrespected and unheard" following school funding announced in the state budget.

While the government committed a further $2.5 million, taking the overall state funding to $9.6 million, Ms Forrest said it "always was underfunded and inadequate".

You can read the rest of my comments relating to the funding allocation to Montello Primary School announced in the State Budget, and as reported in the Advocate newspaper at the link below:

https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/8768512/montello-primary-school-feel-unheard-after-state-budget/?cs=87

Alternatively, my full budget reply speech is available here:

https://ruthforrest.com.au/18-parliament/1239-2024-25-budget-reply-speech

 The section of the speech relating to Montello Primary School is here:

Time to be honest about the challenges and work together, before it's too late. The 2024-25 Tasmanian state budget is a catastrophe.

There is no plan to stop debt servicing costs eating up more and more of revenue each year. By 2027-28 almost 10c in every dollar of revenue will be devoted to debt servicing.

Which leaves less and less each year to provide services.

Even with debt servicing costs, operating expenses are projected to fall over the forward estimates.

Exclude them and adjust for inflation and the fall in real terms is 13 per cent.

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