Hello everyone, and welcome to my very own patch in the greatest State in Australia!

I admit, when it was first suggested to me that we hold the Campaign Launch here I wasn’t quite sure – firstly, I never quite thought I’d attend a campaign launch where the directions included turn left or right at The Big Spud!

But why wouldn’t I, this is where I grew up, this is my home – this is me.

Friends,

Being the Leader of our Party and Premier of our great State is an incredible honour, and I want to start out today by thanking all those people who have supported me to get here.

First, my beautiful wife Sandra.

Sandra has been with me all through this journey.

We didn’t have children when I first entered Parliament - we just had a dog named Flash.

Sometimes, he wasn’t that flash at all, but we loved him anyway.

And along the way, Sandra and I were joined by our girls Ruby, Lucy and Holly - who are the greatest joy in our lives.

Our children have shaped me and Sandra, as much as we have shaped them. I am so grateful for that.

Thank you for your support girls, I love you very much.

And as you’ve seen, we are also joined today by my Mum and our extended family.

This launch is the first campaign where Dad hasn’t been involved – My chief election sign assembler and my most loyal supporter.

Can I honour Will Hodgman and Peter Gutwein, two great Premiers of our State, both of whom I had the honour of serving as their deputy.

I acknowledge and thank our elected team - past and current - who have helped guide this State from a place of despondency and disappointment in 2014 when we were elected, to a State of confidence and credibility in 2024.

Can I thank you all, the Liberal Party members and supporters for your tireless work for our Party, particularly during election campaigns.

And finally, can I thank and acknowledge what I proudly call the Team of the Decade.

It’s a team of volunteers and directors, CEOs and charity leaders, builders and publicans, farmers and policy experts, nurses and volunteer fireys, butchers and doctors, accountants and Local Government representatives.

And their life experiences - as immigrants, parents, 5th and 6th generation Tasmanians, and as entrepreneurs and volunteers, have shaped who they are.

I know each and every one of them will make an outstanding member of Parliament.

Friends,

Over recent weeks I’ve been thinking about my Dad, about growing up on this farm, and how it shaped my approach to family, work, life and politics.

Five generations of Rockliffs have been farmers.

I grew up here at Sassafras on the North West Coast - and it’s here I learned life’s lessons, which I talked about earlier this week.

….every day you get to work
….you don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today
….you look out for neighbours because they look out for you
….you put away for the future because you don’t know what the future holds
….you treat people as you find them - always with respect
….the work changes as the seasons change - and the seasons always change.
….you build, always build, because life’s too short to rest on your laurels.
…. your word is your bond - and you honour it.
….and home is the foundation for whatever you want to achieve in life.

Friends, today I want to talk to you about what’s ahead - our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future.

From the first days of our Liberal majority government, we’ve been a government that’s looked ahead.

And we have always been a government with a Plan.

We took Tasmania from the worst performing State under the Labor-Greens minority Government, to the best performing State on most economic measures.

We did it by prudent and responsible economic management.

Unleashing the potential of Tasmanians.

That resolve and purpose has delivered 53,000 new jobs and historically low levels of unemployment.

We ensured government was focused on the essentials.

Delivering an additional 298 hospital beds - and employing an extra 2,500 health professionals, including 1,390 nurses.

And those choices mattered when COVID arrived - because we had the capability ready.

We’ve invested in major capital works such as the construction of the new Bridgewater Bridge, and the new Royal Hobart Hospital.

And we’ve invested in our economic capacity - with the first of two new Spirit of Tasmania ferries soon to sail into Devonport.

And we did all this without increasing taxes, as well as keeping debt low.

Importantly, we could achieve these things - because we have been a majority Liberal government –

and we didn’t have one hand tied behind our back being dictated to by the Greens, or held hostage by rebel independents.

Friends,

A re-elected majority Liberal Government will take action and deliver results on the issues facing Tasmanians right now:

• Cost of living
• Health; and
• Housing.

Our cost-of-living plan is all about doing what we can to ease people’s hip-pocket pressures, right now.

And it starts with energy bills.

Our energy prices are already the lowest in the nation.

But we’re going to do more.

A re-elected majority Liberal Government will deliver a new supercharged Renewable Energy Dividend.

The dividend will deliver $250 to every Tasmanian household and $300 to around 35,000 small businesses.

And we’re going to rip-up the Hydro’s Labor-Green Charter – which focussed on selling our energy to Victoria – and replace it with a new one that puts Tasmanians first.

Tasmanian prices first.

And Tasmanian jobs and economic growth first.

Always.

And because of our strong economic management, we can afford to halve the cost of bus fares on Metro and rural bus trips right across Tasmania, including the Derwent ferries.

We’re also investing in public transport with three new park and ride facilities across the North and North West

And three new ferry terminals in the South.

Friends,

The key to financial and personal security is housing.

I know, it's becoming more difficult for young people and families to enter the housing market.

We cannot let ourselves become like Sydney - where it now takes over 15 years of savings for someone on an average income to save for just the deposit alone on an average home.

I want your children and their children to have the opportunity to own their own home, just as our generation was able to do.

So, our 2030 Stamping Out Stamp Duty plan ensures that eligible Tasmanian first homebuyers won’t have to pay a cent of Stamp Duty for any home valued up to $750,000.

That’s zero. Zip. Nothing.

This policy will help an extra up to 1,500 Tasmanian households into the housing market a year, with huge savings up to $28,935.

And, we will unlock more affordable rentals by boosting our Private Rental Incentive Scheme, with an additional 200 homes.

And we will provide 100 per cent land tax incentives for property owners who build to rent, or switch a short stay home to a long-term rental.

Friends, what I really want to talk about to you today, is health.

And especially, how our 2030 Strong Plan will make our health system better.

Our health is the most important thing we have.

For four years leading up to the 2014 election I had the job of being the Opposition Health spokesperson, and I got to see up close just how important it is to have a good health system.

And sadly, I also got to see just how bad the consequences are when a government mishandles health, like the Labor Green Government did when they cut the health budget, closed hospital wards and sacked a nurse a day for nine months.

As I mentioned earlier, we are delivering an additional 298 hospital beds - and employing an extra 2,500 health professionals including 1,390 nurses.

And we’ve more than doubled the overall annual health budget from when we first took office.

But I know that our health system needs to be better.

So today, I am proud to be able to announce the most comprehensive package of improvements to our health system in a generation.

Whether it’s a check-up at the GP, the ambo you need in an emergency, or the upgraded hospital facilities you deserve – our health package delivers.

First - I know that when it comes to health, timely access to GPs is for most people, the most important thing.

And the truth is, currently there are simply not enough GPs to meet demand in Tasmania.

So even though this is a Federal Government responsibility, we’re going to step up to the plate and take action where they won’t.

Under our new GP Guarantee which I’m announcing today, we’ll do our absolute best to ensure that when you need a GP, you can see a GP.

Under the new GP Guarantee:

• There’ll be a dedicated team of 10 GPs, employed by the State Government - our GP NOW Rapid Response Team - to be deployed to places of GP shortage while longer-term options are found.

So, for example in a situation where a GP practice closes down on short notice, the GP NOW Rapid Response Team will be deployed to ensure you have continued local GP access.

• We’re also going to attract up to 40 new regional and rural GPs to Tasmania, by paying off their HECS debt up to $100,000; and
• And, we’re going to partner with GPs in outer-urban, regional and rural Tasmania to strengthen and sustain their practices, with multi-year funding of up $250,000 per year.

Second, we’re going to invest in upgrades at all our major public hospitals in the State -

To help ensure that our hard-working medical professionals, and those Tasmanians who need treatment in a hospital, have the best possible facilities:

• At the Royal Hobart Hospital – there’ll be $187 million in capital works over the next six years, including a new $15 million diagnostic breast clinic, a new neurology and stroke ward, and a new rapid assessment medical unit.

• At the Launceston General Hospital – there’ll be a $53 million investment to nearly double the size of the ED, a mental health precinct and a new multi-story carpark.

• And, there’s $174.8 million for a new North West Hospitals Master Plan including:

• At the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie – there’ll be a brand new Medical Inpatient building with a new medical ward, critical clinical diagnostics, dialysis and a lung function lab. And, additional car parking.

• At the Mersey Community Hospital - there’ll be a new sub-acute building for medical oncology services and an inpatient unit for geriatric evaluation and management.

And the third element of our health package –

When there’s an emergency, I know just how important it is to get quick access to an ambulance, and to hospital.

But sometimes, there’s delays – ramping.

Ramping is a serious problem - and we’re going to fix it.

Just last month, we announced a new protocol mandating a maximum 60-minute window for all patients arriving by ambulance to be transferred to the care of Emergency Department staff.

Well today, we’re going to go further.

We’re going to reduce this 60-minute window, to just 30 minutes.

Just 30 minutes – which is around the average time it takes an ambulance crew to safely transfer their patient to the care of the hospital.

Which means that effectively, we’re going to be banning ramping.

This will mean that Tasmanians who need emergency hospital care will get the specialist care they need, when they need it.

And our paramedics will be freed up to deal with other Tasmanians who need their care.

And importantly, we’ll also be providing our EDs and hospitals with the resources they need to effectively implement this policy -

• For example, we’ll employ 44 new doctors and 25 new nurses to staff the Royal’s expanded Emergency Department, 24/7.

And Friends,

I’m pleased to let you know that over coming days, I’ll be making a number of further announcements about how our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future will improve our health system.

Because making our health system better really is the most important thing that your government can do for you.

Friends, in 20 days’ time Tasmanians will face a crucial and important choice.

A choice between a majority Liberal Government, with our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future.

Or a Labor-led minority Government Coalition of Chaos.

Labor, Lambie, Greens, Independent…

A grab-bag of political views that would make the Star Wars bar scene look positively boring – and governing, near impossible.

Now, those of us who have been around in Tasmania for a little while understand that majority Government is the best thing for our state, and past experience proves it.

In contrast, minority government is destabilising, it destroys confidence and is bad for our state, and for Tasmanians.

None of us want to go back to the dark days of the last Labor-Green minority Government.

The truth is – and the polls confirm this - only the Liberals can credibly claim to be seeking majority government at this election.

We are in a strong position, but we are not over the line.

There is still a way to go for us to be able to restore to Tasmanians the stability and certainty that a majority government delivers.

So, my clear message to Tasmanians today is this:

• To those disenchanted Labor voters thinking of sticking with Ms White
• To those people considering voting for the Lambie Party, and her network of Corflute Candidates
• To those people thinking about voting Independent

Please, think again.

Tasmanians, we need your help.

We need your vote to help save Tasmania from a Labor-led Coalition of Chaos, and to deliver stability and certainty.

We need your vote to help deliver the majority government that Tasmania needs.

I ask you all, on Saturday the 23^rd of March, to vote Liberal 1-7.

Thank you.