Media release – Dean Winter MP, Labor Leader, 15 September 2024
480 reasons why Labor will ban pork barrelling
After 10 years of the Liberals, Tasmania’s finances are now officially the worst in the nation.
The interest bill on the Liberal debt could pay for the ambulance service twice over, and economists are openly speculating about credit rating downgrades and a potential “financial crisis”.
This mess—created solely by the Liberals who inherited zero net debt from Labor in 2014— will take years to undo. But Labor believes a sensible first step is to bring the Liberals’ pork barrelling to an end.
The Liberals’ disastrous budget provides 480 reasons why this action is necessary.
The budget lists 480 election commitments, totalling nearly $1.3 billion.
Individually, nearly all of them have some merit. But collectively, in the context of a budget disaster, they highlight just how irresponsible the Liberals have become with the finances under Jeremy Rockliff’s leadership.
So today I say enough is enough: Labor will ban pork barrelling and rorts.
We will pass a law to require all government grants to go through an impartial assessment process.
We will not allow debt to continue to be racked up for political purposes.
And we will put an end to the ugly spectacle of government MPs being investigated by the Integrity Commission for making grants that directly benefit themselves or their families.
Nic Street, Minister for Finance, 15 September 2024
Winter gives up on representing everyday Tasmanians
In an astonishing admission today, Opposition Leader Mr Winter has ceded that he would outsource all decision-making to a faceless bureaucrat.
Mr Winter has effectively given up the basic principles of representative democracy by suggesting that unelected officials would be responsible for all funding decisions under his increasingly flaky leadership.
Less than six months ago, Mr Winter helped oversee more than $4 billion of Labor election promises, often confirmed via secret letters and Facebook posts.
This included an extraordinary four-hour period in the final weeks of the campaign, where Labor averaged $2.4 million in election commitments every single minute.
Now, Mr Winter appears ready to give up on doing the basic work of a Member of Parliament.
In ceding his parliamentary responsibility to listen to and advocate for his community, Mr Winter has admitted that putting faceless unelected bureaucrats in charge of determining what’s best for Tasmanian communities is a better policy than anything he can come up with.
Tasmanians deserve a Government whose elected members work hand in glove, fighting for better outcomes with their communities.
