Dear Friends

Thursday, 13 October 2011
Dear friends,
The reality of the Budget challenges facing the State have been thrown in sharp relief recently, demonstrated
by the recent announcement detailing how Health will seek to deliver it’s share of the required savings.
There is no easy way to tackle either the State’s financial situation or our Health system unfortunately. In fact,
it is because too many successive governments have thrown health reform into the too hard basket that we
have now such a huge and serious problem. If left unchecked, at current rates the health budget alone will
blow out to consume the entire state budget within 10 to 15 years.
We Greens have long called for increased focus on prevention and early intervention. This makes good
health sense as well as good economic sense.
The health budget challenge is virtually a microcosm of the bigger Budget challenge facing the State.
Finding the identified savings is just the first step. We Greens are adamant that this effort, and pain, must
also produce the broader long term result of putting our finances onto a sustainable footing.
We must break free of the crippling boom-bust cycle which has plagued this state over the last few decades.
History cannot keep repeating itself where we see minority governments, with the Greens in balance of
power, having to come in and clean up the financial mess left by majority governments. We are adamant that
the pain being endured now, cannot be regarded as an end in itself but instead must be the first step in
shifting the way the State manages its finances, and put us onto a sustainable footing. We need to learn how
to live realistically within our means and make our economy sufficiently robust to withstand the vagaries of
global market forces beyond our immediate control.
However restructuring and shifting the finances onto a sustainable footing will not be easy or happen
overnight.
As I stated during my Budget Reply in June this year, clearly if this State Budget had been delivered by a
majority Greens government with a Greens treasurer it would have looked somewhat different from the
Budget that we saw delivered. For example, we have always believed that appropriate State debt
accompanied by a responsible plan to get back in the black, is something that ought to be considered and, if
appropriate, implemented. This would have provided greater flexibility in a fiscal strategy, would have
allowed a more progressive savings and revenue-raising strategy spread out over more time to allow the
community to adjust to savings measures.
We are on our own in this regard. Neither the Labor nor Liberal parties will countenance using temporary net
debt as a tool in their toolkits to smooth out the peaks and troughs of the budget cycle.
It is important to realize that the Liberal Party voted in support of this State Budget, and have concurred with
Treasury’s identified quantum of savings required., including the reduction in the public sector, just as Labor
has advocated. Significantly they fail to provide a robust plan detailing a shift away from this crippling boombust
crisis management driven cycle.
Labor has acknowledged this important principle, and the fiscal strategy outlined in the State Budget has
shifted in this direction (though not as far as we Greens advocated).
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Tasmania cannot keep succumbing to ad hoc knee-jerk reactions – that is exactly the lazy culture that
contributed to the current problems.
Repeating the behaviour that got us into a bad situation, will not help us get out.
And our commitment to ensuring the hard yards taken now help lay the foundation for a more sustainable
future is demonstrated by the response to the health budget announcement by our Health spokesperson,
Paul “Basil’ O’Halloran. Instead of immediately resorting to blame-games, and political point-scoring, Basil
immediately got on the phone and started to organize getting out to talk to health workers at the coal face.
He has already held in-depth briefings as well as undertook a tour of the NW Hospital in Burnie, and will be
doing the same in the LGH and RHH in the coming weeks.
On top of this, Basil’s office is also organising a key health stakeholder’ forum to discuss appropriate funding
models – including examining the pros and cons of the Federal take-over option. If it transpires that this
actually is not a feasible option, then we all need to stop potentially wasting time and energy pursuing it but
instead buckle down to find a viable and sustainable way for Tasmania to go it on our own.
This is not going to be an easy time for anyone in the community, and there will be those who believe that
the journey along the path of the State’s economic transition is too long and difficult. However doing
nothing to rein in spending is not an option and will only make that inevitable road steeper and harsher.
On behalf of your State Greens MPs team, I wish to reassure you that we recognise these are challenging and
tough times for everyone, and we are focussed on doing the right thing, rather than looking for the easy way
out.
Yours in determination,
Nick McKim
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader & Member for Franklin