Despite passing through Parliament just a week ago, the Liberals have already completely blown the budget.

Big ticket items such as $196 million for the newly signed Schools Funding Agreement and $26.5 million for Premier Rockliff’s compensation tourism package were not part of this year’s appropriation.

These are worthy initiatives, but there's one big unanswered question: where on earth is the money coming from for all these extra promises?

On top of that, Premier Rockliff has extraordinarily claimed that planned health cuts won't materialise because there will be a "difference between actual expenditure and budgeted expenditure" - that is an admission his budget is a big book of lies and he intends to massively blow the budget blowout.

The same claim is now being made by Felix Ellis in relation to cuts in the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management.

Since handing down the worst budget in living memory, the Premier has already racked up hundreds of millions in new spending. Premier Rockliff’s spendathon is happening while ratings agencies are looking closely at whether to downgrade our credit rating, something we can ill afford to happen due to Tasmania’s record debt.

Tasmania’s finances are set to be the worst in the nation. After inheriting zero net debt from Labor in 2014, the Liberals have managed to rack up $8.6 billion of record debt and counting – a disaster for future generations who will have to service it.

After a decade in office, the Liberals have destroyed their financial credibility. It's little wonder when they can't even stick to their budget for a week.

Unlike the Liberals, Labor is willing to start moving in the right direction which is why we’ve already put forward a 10-point plan to get things back on track, and why we’ll continue to hold Jeremy Rockliff to account for his reckless spending habits.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer