The 2024-25 Revised Estimates Report shows net debt is forecast to reach $9.6 billion over the forward estimates, slugging Tasmanians with $1.5 billion worth of payments just to service the Liberals’ credit card, with no cash surplus in sight to stop the ballooning debt.

By 2027-28 the Liberal Government plans to spend more than half a billion dollars a year on borrowing costs - this is not to pay down debt, it is simply paying the interest on the credit card, which they will fund by borrowing even more.

For the cost of servicing the Liberals’ debt across the forward estimates, you could employ more than 1,500 experienced nurses, 1,000 senior teachers and 600 police sergeants combined.

Future generations of Tasmanians will be paying off the Liberals’ debt for decades to come, and that will be this Government’s legacy.

The Liberals don’t even have anything to show for their record deficit and debt, the economy is flatlining, essential services are being cut back to the bone, and major projects like the Spirits have been bungled to the point of international embarrassment.

Despite inheriting zero net debt from Labor in 2014, when Treasurer Barnett delivered his inaugural speech to the Tasmanian Parliament, he said that “there is a budget blowout which we now know to be in excess of $1 billion over the forward estimates – an irresponsible mortgage on our children’s future.”

The Treasurer should eat his own words from 2014 and own up to the burden his Government will place on future generations of Tasmanians. Continuing to bury his head in the sand and acting like there’s nothing wrong doesn’t cut it.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer