Will Minister Jaensch explain how housing crisis will be addressed after $367m cut …

 Tasmania’s housing crisis will only grow if GST revenue is lost
 Hodgman, Gutwein and Jaensch must deliver in pending State Budget
 Tasmanians priced out of rental and housing markets need urgent help
The Liberal Government will be unable to deliver urgent measures to address the housing and homelessness crisis with Tasmania’s State Budget at unprecedented risk of losing GST revenue.
Shadow Housing Minister Josh Willie said with $367 million in revenue in just one year at stake, Housing Minister Roger Jaensch needs to explain to hundreds of Tasmanians caught in the crisis how next week’s budget will address their plight.
“Mr Jaensch has been unable to say how he intends to urgently fix the crisis in the current circumstances but with Tasmania at risk of taking a $367 million hit from lost GST revenue in just one year in 2021-22, he now needs to explain how he can possibly plan for the long term,” Mr Willie said.
“With an unprecedented level of uncertainty surrounding this year’s budget, how will Mr Jaensch genuinely frame up the urgent measures that are needed to address the crisis?
“It is just not possible to put together a long-term strategy around providing housing with GST revenue completely missing from 2019 onwards, despite the Prime Minister’s devious assurances of a ‘guarantee’.
“Tasmanians not only need urgent housing assurances now, they need assurance going forward over the longer term as the housing crisis continues to grow.
“Premier Hodgman, the Treasurer and the Housing Minister know a cut of $367 million in 2021-22 and a four year cumulative loss of over $600 million will cripple Tasmania’s public services.
“But there has been no urgency addressing housing affordability and homelessness while Tasmanians are sleeping in tents and the government has delivered only 37 of the 430 social houses they promised to build by next year.
“Premier Hodgman and Mr Jaensch need to bring forward their $125 million housing affordability commitment made during the election campaign and front end some of this funding in the upcoming budget.
“The urgency cannot not be ignored, it must be addressed and Mr Jaensch needs to be honest and say how it will be addressed without an adequate level of funding allocated toward building more social housing and helping our most vulnerable in next week’s budget.”
Josh Willie MLC Shadow Housing Minister 4 June 2018