The Tasmanian Greens today said that unlike both the Labor and Liberal parties, the party was not scared of using temporary government debt as a tool to minimize cuts to community services as well as providing flexibility for an economic restructure.
Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said that had the Greens’ long-held position been adopted, the current State Budget would have looked different, but he was not advocating that the State now goes into debt on an ad hoc basis.
Mr McKim said the TCCI Chief Robert Wallace has also misrepresented the Greens’ position on public debt in comments being circulated today.
“The Greens have a consistent position that entering into a strategic temporary debt for the purpose of buffering the community from cuts to services should not be ruled out by an ideological fear of owing money.”
“Debt is a tool that provides greater flexibility when revenues fall. A different debt strategy would have resulted in a State Budget that would have looked very different,” Mr McKim said.
“There is an irrational fear of government net debt when debt can be a good thing, as long as it is affordable.”
“Any decision to go into temporary debt would of course require an accompanying plan for paying it off in an appropriate timeframe,” Mr McKim said.
