Media release – Josh Willie MP, Shadow Treasurer, 9 May 2024
Another Liberal blowout highlights poor budget management
Tasmanian taxpayers must have choked on their cornflakes this morning after reading about yet another massive Liberal cost blowout – this time with the wastewater plant relocation project.
Tasmanians will now be on the hook for more than $220 million – more than double the original estimate and a direct result of almost a decade of delays.
This massive blowout follows huge overruns on other major projects around Hobart, including the Bridgewater Bridge ($210 million), Brighton High School ($44 million) and the Glenorchy Ambulance Station ($7 million).
When the Liberals were first elected, Tasmania had zero net debt. Now respected and independent economist Saul Eslake believes the state’s finances are the worst in the country, saying recently that “Victoria is a basket-case but on two metrics commonly used by the rating agencies… Tasmania is worse than Victoria.”
Jeremy Rockliff has lost control of a series of major projects and he’s lost control of the budget.
The Liberal Government is presiding over record deficit and debt and they have nothing to show for it except a flatlining economy, people leaving for better opportunities elsewhere and public services at breaking point.
This latest blowout will only make Premier Rockliff’s looming budget disaster worse.
Editor’s note: we asked the following question.
Given Labor is now supporting a stadium, how will that not make the ‘looming budget disaster’ worse?
Response received:
“Good governments deliver infrastructure, secure jobs, manage the budget well and deliver good government services like health, education and housing.
“Debt isn’t a bad word if you grow the economy and increase government revenue to deliver services.
“The Rockliff Minority Government isn’t a good government.”
