In yet another example of reckless and wasteful spending by Jeremy Rockliff’s minority Government, Right to Information documents have shown that Tasmanian taxpayers forked out more than $42,000 on propaganda designed to mislead Tasmanians about the ongoing Spirits fiasco.

The Liberal minority government took out several full-page newspaper spreads in December, containing information ranging from shameless political spin to outright lies.

In the most egregious example, the Rockliff minority government tried to claim that Spirit IV won’t be a second-hand ship if it is leased to another country before finally coming to Tasmania.

The Liberals also tried to convince people that TT-Line is “fast-tracking” new berthing infrastructure that was supposed to be ready a year ago and still won’t be ready for another two years. They must think Tasmanians are stupid.

Under the Liberals, Tasmania is on track to rack up nearly $10 billion in debt.

Despite Jeremy Rockliff’s bungling of the Spirits replacement already costing the state billions of dollars’ worth of economic activity, he’s spending $1.8 million more hiding the ships in Scotland, and another $42,000 making Tasmanians pay to read Liberal spin and propaganda about their cover-up.

This whole sorry saga is yet more proof that Jeremy Rockliff can’t be trusted with money, or the truth.

Luke Edmunds MLC
Shadow Minister for Finance