Today’s release of the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Report 2013-14 draws a line under 16 years of Labor’s financial mismanagement and outlines, in detail, why our long-term Plan for Tasmania is so important.
The Report shows that under Labor and the Greens, the state’s finances continued to worsen right until they were voted out of Government.
The Net Operating Balance for 2013-14 is a deficit of $165 million while the underlying net operating balance is a staggering deficit of $406 million.
The underlying deficit is a significant deterioration on what Labor and the Greens’ forecast in their last Budget in 2013-14 and highlights why we need to fix the Budget mess left by Labor and the Greens.
The previous Government delivered deficit after deficit, put the Budget into an unsustainable position and put the State on track for cumulative deficits of more than $1.1 billion.
We simply cannot allow the Budget position to get worse. If we don’t start to fix the problems now, the actions that will need to be taken in future years will be even more severe.
Putting the Budget back onto a sustainable pathway is no easy task, but the Liberal Government is committed to fixing the Budget mess so we can afford to deliver essential services for future generations.
We have to get on with the job Tasmanians elected us to do and that is exactly what we’re doing.
Peter Gutwein, Treasurer
