In five years’ time, at the current 10 per cent annual growth, the bill would be $3.2 billion. That would mean that the extra cost of government would be greater than the size of the Tasmanian economy, says business economist Richard Dowling (left).
The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce chief economist describes the rapidly escalating cost of running the State Government as a demographic time bomb.
Already, providing for Tasmania’s 28,000 public servants consumes 50 per cent of the state’s budget, he says.
Northern financial analyst Tony Gray said the growth of the public sector in the past five years had been phenomenal and outstripped any other state.
“There has been a massive increase in what we pay our public servants since 2003, from $1.3 billion to $2 billion,” Mr Gray said.
“We can’t afford to put money into infrastructure when we are paying so much on wages,” Mr Gray said.
What irks Mr Gray is that the money is not just going to keep frontline people like nurses and teachers in jobs.
In health, the state’s biggest government department, there are 10 senior executives paid more than $100,000 a year.
“They are not doctors and nurses keeping wards open in hospitals and you have to ask what are they doing,” Mr Gray said.
