The Tasmanian Greens today defended the record of past and present minority governments in Tasmania, which have consistently shown far greater capacity than majority governments to deliver on tough economic reforms.
Greens Leader Nick McKim said that despite attempts to portray minority government as unstable, the current Labor-Green power sharing arrangement was helping deliver some of the most important reforms of a generation.
“Tasmanian history shows that unchecked majority governments squander money in the good times while avoiding hard decisions to set the state up for tougher economic times,” Mr McKim said.
“It’s been minority governments like the current one that have done the hard business of reform, cleaning up the economic mess left behind by the financial excess and ill-disciplined mistakes of majority governments.”
“The current power sharing government is in the process of delivering of some of the biggest reforms in a generation, including the nation’s first Cost of living strategy, and fundamentally restructuring the forestry and energy sectors.”
“At a time when economies across the world are stagnating, private sector investment has actually increased each quarter since the election in defiance of the Liberal Party’s fake gloom and doom.”
“Majority government might sound like a more stable option, but the reality is that both Labor and Liberal have a clear track record in majority government of avoiding tough decisions because they’re politically unpopular.”
“A Green government would certainly look very different to this one, but we’re rolling up our sleeves and making the tough decisions that are needed to keep state’s economic transition on track,” Mr McKim said.
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader Sunday, 24 June 2012
