Address – Jeremy Rockliff, Premier, 4 March 2025
Strong economy Government’s major focus
Premier Jeremy Rockliff has today announced a sweeping assault on government red tape and regulation, an audit of government programmes to remove waste, and an assessment of the suitability of divesting a number of government-owned businesses.
In his State of the State address, Premier Rockliff declared a strong economy was his Government’s major focus.
Since being re-elected, the Government has delivered more than 1,000 initiatives in the first 300 days of its 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, and is only just getting started.
To give people the best possible opportunity to deal with cost-of-living pressures to continue our record investment in our health system, we need a strong economy; to keep building the roads, the bridges, the schools and hospitals, we need a strong economy; and to be able to implement the Commission of Inquiry recommendations to keep our children safe, we need a strong economy.
The Premier revealed new measures to identify and cut unnecessary red tape and regulations, including taking a comprehensive look at all Government programs.
He also detailed the government’s plan to achieve a ‘sensible pathway to surplus’ without raising taxes.
- Cutting back business licences by working with businesses to strip away unnecessary regulation to encourage growth in the small business sector, while also ensuring people operate safely and within the law;
- Cutting red tape, establishing a red tape portal where Tasmanians can log their experiences of unnecessary red tape;
- Cutting unnecessary legislation by setting aside parliamentary sitting days, especially for removing legislation and requiring ministers and regulators to remove regulations for every new one they create;
- Audit Government programs and state service resources to make sure we are not wasting resources on things that are not a priority, enabling the Government to be structured more efficiently; and
- Assessing the benefits of moving several entities out of Government ownership, with respected economist Saul Eslake to provide advice to the Government.
Read the full transcript of the State of the State Address at the bottom of this post.
Media release – Shane Broad MP, Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly, 4 March 2025
Premier prepares to deliver the list of promises he’ll never keep
Ahead of Jeremy Rockliff’s State of the State speech this afternoon, it’s worth casting our memories back to the same speech he made in 2023.
I’ll admit this Premier is good at big announcements, but he’s dreadful at delivering.
Here’s just a small list from 2023:
Marinus Final Investment Decision by late 2024
Planning reform
Tasman Bridge upgrades
Cradle Valley Cableway
Mt Wellington Cable Car
So, when the Premier gets up this afternoon and delivers his speech full of empty rhetoric, remember to take your grain of salt because his Liberal minority government won’t deliver any of it.
The Mercury, 1 March 2023.
Media release – Josh Willie MP, Shadow Treasurer, 4 March 2025
Rockliff confirms he’s bankrupting Tasmania
Jeremy Rockliff has admitted he’s bankrupting Tasmania while also proving that he still has no serious plan to turn the situation around.
When the Liberals came to office there was zero net debt, and money in the bank. On Jeremy Rockliff’s watch, Tasmania will soon have more than $10 billion of debt and a budget deficit four times worse than at the height of COVID – a time when money was basically being shovelled out the door.
The Premier’s latest plan to address his own mess – a blanket hiring freeze he’s outsourcing to unelected bureaucrats – is a lazy and inefficient policy that won’t go close to repairing the damage he and his government have inflicted over 11 years.
He couldn’t say how much it would save – embarrassingly choosing to retreat to his seat rather than answering the questions. He couldn’t say which roles he considers to be “non-essential”.
The only thing the Premier did reveal was that he’s looking to restore things to pre-Rockliff levels.
Without detail this is nothing more than empty commitment to undo his own mismanagement, and an admission that he is the architect of Tasmania’s budget mess.
Rockliff announces fire sale after wrecking Tasmania’s budget
Premier Jeremy Rockliff has wrecked the budget so badly that he’s resorted to selling state owned assets to pay down his credit card bill.
The Premier’s debt collectors have come knocking, he’s opened up the door, and asked them what they want.
Privatisation ends in increased user costs and decreased services. After 11 years of the Liberals, Tasmanians can’t afford either.
Last time the Liberals wrecked the budget they tried to sell the Hydro. This time they are trying to sell everything but the Hydro.
Jeremy Rockliff and the Liberals have proven they can’t manage money, and its Tasmanians who will have to pay the price.
Supplementary appropriation proves Rockliff has lost control – overspending by nearly $4 million a day
By tabling a supplementary appropriation bill for $467,512,000 today, Premier Rockliff has given even more proof that he has lost control of Tasmania’s finances.
The budget appropriation bill only received Royal Assent on 1 November 2024. That means that since then, the Liberals have been overspending by close to a whopping $4 million a day.
Premier Rockliff’s failure to responsibly manage Tasmania’s finances has put the state in a dire situation.
Right up until last week, Premier Rockliff and Treasurer Guy Barnett maintained a façade that everything was under control.
Now, they have been forced to table a supplementary appropriation bill so that they can keep making the credit card payments on their record debt.
Tasmanians won’t be fooled by the chest-thumping and attempts by the Premier to appear like he’s doing something about the budget. Needing to ask the Parliament for more money is a clear admission that Premier Rockliff can’t manage money.
After 11 years of the Liberals, debt is exploding, and Tasmania’s finances have never been in worse shape. That will be this Government’s legacy.
Premier Rockliff’s fiscal incompetence is going to hurt future generations of Tasmanians who will be paying down the Liberals’ legacy debt for decades to come.
Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 4 March 2025
Liberals Launch Radical Right-Wing Agenda
Jeremy Rockliff might be Premier in name, but his State of the State speech has made it obvious that it’s Eric Abetz and his radical right-wing friends now pulling the strings in the Tasmanian government.
The State of the State is usually where we see Premiers outline their positive vision for the year ahead. Instead, Jeremy Rockliff used it to officially announce his government’s huge lurch to the political right.
Make no mistake, what the Premier has announced is a radical right-wing agenda. Cuts to the public sector, privatisation of public services and assets, and giving corporations and industry free rein are all straight out of the neoconservative playbook.
So shameless is this ideological shift, Jeremy Rockliff was happy to directly reference Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump’s language – that “people want government out of their lives.” That’s not true. Tasmanians want an ambulance when they need one, a safe and secure place to call home, reliable bus services, and schools that give every child the chance of a bright future.
The Premier had the gall to say again today he is leading a government with heart. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is all about a destructive right-wing agenda, and a red carpet for corporations and special interests.
The Greens are fundamentally opposed to the disturbing agenda the Liberals have laid out, and we will be fighting tooth and nail to make sure they do not get their way.
We call on all other members of Parliament to stand with us.
Media release – Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 4 March 2025
TCCI backs Rockliff’s ambitious reform agenda
The TCCI is backing the ambitious reform agenda outlined by Premier Rockliff today.
TCCI Chair, Wayne Davy, said the TCCI has long been calling for public sector reform and efficiency, examining asset sales and creating a sovereign wealth fund.
“Tasmania deserves nothing less than a Government with an ambitious reform agenda and that’s exactly what we saw today,” Mr Davy said.
“This is without doubt the most ambitious, reform-oriented State of the State speech in over twenty years and the TCCI supports what Premier Rockliff outlined today.
“It is absolutely essential that the Tasmanian Government makes sure we have a fit-for-purpose public sector. We have seen the number of public servants increase by thirty per cent over the past eight years, which is completely unsustainable.
“It’s also clear that we need to carefully look at the State-Owned Companies and Government Business Enterprises and see whether or not they would deliver better services and better value for the Tasmanian people if they were run by the private sector.
“Finally, we know that politicians are always tempted to spend more than they have, which is why the state’s finances are in the position they are. Locking up any windfalls into a sovereign wealth fund is the best way to ensure the proceeds are used to repair the budget first and foremost, pay down debt and offset interest on the state’s debt.
“The TCCI has been calling for the Government to consider all these initiatives for many years, including in our recently released ‘Tasmania Report – Vision 2028’, which provides a blueprint for our elected leaders to support business, grow the economy and create jobs. It’s to the Government’s credit that they have listened.
“It’s also encouraging that the Government wants to ensure regulators support growth and investment rather than acting as a handbrake. It’s important that this change happens as soon as possible, because it will help existing businesses and aspiring business-owners.
“The TCCI calls on the Labor Party and the crossbench to back in these reforms. They are vital for Tasmania’s future. I know it would be easy for the opposition to play politics with such an ambitious agenda, but we are at a critical point in time for the State and in the interests of Tasmania, business and industry and the community more broadly, the TCCI calls on the Parliament to work together to deliver these vital reforms and to hold the Government accountable for delivering these reforms.”
Media release – independent MHAs Rebekah Pentland & Miriam Beswick, 4 March 2025
GBE SALE MUST BE STRATEGIC
Northern independents Rebekah Pentland and Miriam Beswick welcome the debate around the potential sale of government businesses but argue any privatisation must be strategic.
“This can’t be a fire sale,” Mrs Pentland said.
“The Premier’s commitment to exploring the sale of GBEs is welcome but it must be strategic and clearly in the state’s long-term interests.
“I’m sure many Tasmanians share my frustration over the performance of some government businesses.
“If, for example, the private sector can demonstrate an ability to deliver more reliable and dynamic public transport solutions then it should be explored.
“Privatisation isn’t a silver bullet, but it may well be the invigoration some of our state-owned businesses need.
“The 2011 sale of TOTE Tasmania attracted just $103 million dollars and was widely criticised.
“We must learn from the mistakes of the past and do our due diligence on any potential sale.
“I’ll be consulting widely so my views are consistent with the voters of Bass.”
Braddon independent Miriam Beswick said the Government is right to explore ways to repair the budget.
“A strategic sale of some GBEs could help begin the budget repair process,” Mrs Beswick.
“We’re about to go past the $10 billion mark when it comes to net debt, change is necessary.
“But selling off assets can’t be a quick cash grab. We need to get this right because once they’re gone, they’re gone.
“We’ll be holding the Premier to his promise that any sale will come with overwhelming public benefit.”
Media release – CEPU Tasmania, 5 March 2025
Liberal Dog Whistling on TasNetworks Privatisation is a Desperate Move from a Desperate Government
The union representing Tasmanian energy workers and the public’s interest in energy has slammed the Liberal Government for floating the privatisation of TasNetworks.
CEPU State Secretary Chris Clark has warned Tasmanians that the government’s consideration of asset leasing is a generational disaster in the making.
“A 99-year lease is a sale. If it’s leased, it’s as good as sold—it’s gone.”
“Privatisation doesn’t work—anywhere, ever. You don’t take a profitable, essential asset, sell it for pennies on the dollar, never see another cent in the future, and call it a good deal.”
The economic case for privatisation is indefensible. It’s a transparent distraction from a government that has botched the Devonport port fiasco and the Spirit saga.
“Tasmania will not be better off selling a profitable asset for next to nothing just to pay for this government’s other mistakes. TasNetworks needs a management cleanout—but selling it is like overloading a ute, blowing the engine, selling it for peanuts and then paying to rebuild it.”
We’ve seen this playbook before. In 1999, the Liberals tried to sell Hydro Tasmania for just 20% of its actual value—a terrible deal for the state.
In 2015, Campbell Newman took a 99-year power lease proposal to the Queensland election, and voters handed him the worst electoral defeat in Australian history, fuelled by the community-driven #Not4Sale campaign. We will mobilise the same resistance here.
This isn’t about economics—it’s about ideology. No credible economist supports privatisation. This is just another failed trickle-down experiment, the same ideology that has eroded Tasmanian and Australian living standards since John Howard’s Liberals embraced it.
Selling off TasNetworks would deliver a short-term sugar hit that’s a fraction of the asset’s actual value, just to plaster over the government’s mismanagement. It’s an irresponsible and reckless move.
“TasNetworks is currently mismanaged—but that’s because of its half-privatised GBE model. It’s a mess of competing interests pretending to be a public service while really acting as a greedy corporation. Full privatisation would only make it worse—higher prices, massive job cuts, and an unaccountable private monopoly.”
History proves privatisation doesn’t work.
- Victoria and South Australia privatised their power networks in the 1990s—and immediately saw massive job losses and skyrocketing prices.
- Victoria’s energy privatisation directly contributed to the Black Saturday bushfires—a devastating loss of life caused by private companies cutting maintenance to increase profits.
- Across Australia, governments are now being forced to re-nationalise assets because private investors have bled them dry and walked away.
Privatisation is a failed experiment—and we refuse to let Tasmania become the next cautionary tale.
“Look at what Thatcher did to Britain. Look at what Howard did to Australia. Strong communities and good jobs were sacrificed so a handful of greedy shareholders could profit. We won’t let it happen here.”
This is our fight.
We call on all Tasmanians to stand up and be counted. Instead of accepting hollow election promises, our communities must unite, campaign, and force a new kind of politics—one that protects our essential services.
TasNetworks and all public assets are not for sale.
Media release – Tasmanian Small Business Council, 5 March 2025
RED TAPE REDUCTION FOCUS WELCOME, BUT PROOF WILL BE IN THE PUDDING
The announced focus on red tape reduction in the Premier’s State of the State speech yesterday is welcome, but the proof of the policy will be in its successful implementation, Tasmanian Small Business Council CEO Robert Mallett said today.
“It was great to hear the Premier talking about the importance of small business to the Tasmanian economy”, Mr Mallett said.
“The Premier’s example of requiring 37 separate licences simply to open a café was stark, and highlights the bureaucratic tangle of red tape we are drowning under.
“But, to some extent, we have heard all of this before, and the proof will be in pudding as to whether the Government actually does effectively reduce the red tape burden on small business.
“We look forward to working closely with the Government to bring the dream of less red tape, and more effective bureaucracy to reality,” Mr Mallett concluded.
