Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s response to serious concerns about the state of the budget is a massive slap in the face for Tasmanians.

Despite delivering a budget update which shows the Government is on track to blow their forecast deficit out of the water – and which the TCCI has labelled the ‘next Government disaster in the making’ – the Premier effectively told Tasmanians there was nothing to see here and that the Liberals had “very good budget management”.

When the Liberals took office, there was money in the bank. After 10 years of Liberal economic mismanagement, the state is now in record debt and deficit.

The Premier needs to get his head out of the sand, outline how he’ll get Tasmania out of this mess of his own making, and stop peddling his fictional line about ‘a pathway back to surplus’ when his budget contains nothing of the sort.

Unlike the government, Labor has recognised something has to change, putting forward our ten-point plan for budget repair to show we are serious about getting Tasmania’s finances under control. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a vital first step.

As part of that, we’ll bring more consulting services in-house, conduct an audit of all out-sourcing contracts to ensure taxpayers are getting value for money, and make more of our health workforce permanent to cut down on exorbitant locum and agency costs.  

Locum doctors and agency nurses cost 2-3 times more than permanent staff and require expensive advertising campaigns to recruit. Instead, the Liberals should direct their focus toward improving working conditions for permanent staff, work to reduce high staff turnover and abolish vacancy control measures from the THS.  

But the first thing the Premier needs to do is admit he’s got a problem, put away the credit card and start taking Tasmania’s budget situation seriously.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer