Media release – Josh Willie MP, Shadow Treasurer, 16 December 2024

Premier’s budget response a slap in the face for Tasmanians

Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s response to serious concerns about the state of the budget is a massive slap in the face for Tasmanians.

Despite delivering a budget update which shows the Government is on track to blow their forecast deficit out of the water – and which the TCCI has labelled the ‘next Government disaster in the making’ – the Premier effectively told Tasmanians there was nothing to see here and that the Liberals had “very good budget management”.

When the Liberals took office, there was money in the bank. After 10 years of Liberal economic mismanagement, the state is now in record debt and deficit.

The Premier needs to get his head out of the sand, outline how he’ll get Tasmania out of this mess of his own making, and stop peddling his fictional line about ‘a pathway back to surplus’ when his budget contains nothing of the sort.

Unlike the government, Labor has recognised something has to change, putting forward our ten-point plan for budget repair to show we are serious about getting Tasmania’s finances under control. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a vital first step.

As part of that, we’ll bring more consulting services in-house, conduct an audit of all out-sourcing contracts to ensure taxpayers are getting value for money, and make more of our health workforce permanent to cut down on exorbitant locum and agency costs.

Locum doctors and agency nurses cost 2-3 times more than permanent staff and require expensive advertising campaigns to recruit. Instead, the Liberals should direct their focus toward improving working conditions for permanent staff, work to reduce high staff turnover and abolish vacancy control measures from the THS.

But the first thing the Premier needs to do is admit he’s got a problem, put away the credit card and start taking Tasmania’s budget situation seriously.

Editor’s note: the Budget update can be found here. The government did not issue a statement.

Media release – Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 16 December 2024

Massive budget blowout a disaster in the making

The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the voice of business in Tasmania and is raising the alarm on the appalling state of Tasmania’s finances.

TCCI CEO, Michael Bailey, said the latest budget update was so bad the Government snuck it out late on a Friday in the hope that no one would notice the sea of red ink it contained.

“This is the next Government disaster in the making,” Mr Bailey said.

“This isn’t the sort of problem that will go away if you ignore it, it will only get worse the longer you leave it.

“The first step towards fixing a problem, is admitting it. Unfortunately, the Government is in denial about the mess that its finances are in. The Government should make reining in spending its New Year’s resolution.

“The major problem is the massive blowout in the size of the bureaucracy. Over the ten years of this Liberal Government, the number of bureaucrats has grown by 30 per cent. The worst culprit is the Premier’s own department. Since 2013-14, the number of people in the Department of Premier and Cabinet has doubled from 337 to 662, which is unsustainable.

“If the Government isn’t prepared to face facts and deal with this challenge then it will have a damaging impact on business confidence.

“Just because the bureaucracy is bigger it doesn’t mean that services are better and in some cases the opposite is true. The frustrating thing is, if the Government was prepared to reach out to the local business community we could work together to deliver essential services more efficiently by leveraging the skills and expertise in the private sector.

“Labor also needs to outline how it would reduce spending if they want the business community to take them seriously as an alternative government.”