When the Liberals came to office in 2014, Tasmania had $208 million in the bank. Now, after 11 years of Liberal budget mismanagement, Tasmania is staring down the barrel of almost $11 billion worth of net debt.

The interest payments on the Liberal legacy debt will reach $650 million per year, more than $2 billion across the forward estimates – and that won’t even start to pay it down.

Both major credit rating agencies downgraded Tasmania’s credit outlook to negative following last year’s horror budget. This year, Premier Rockliff’s latest budget disaster has put Tasmania’s credit rating at risk – which will see Tasmanians make even higher interest payments on the Liberals’ legacy debt.

At the time, S&P warned Tasmania was heading for a weaker credit rating and the Liberals’ budget was a “a frank admission that the state is going to breach all of its own targets” for fiscal management. They said, “Tasmania’s fiscal metrics are weakening”, noted our “debt burden is rising”, and warned that a credit rating downgrade would be implemented if debt reaches 120 per cent of revenue – after the last budget, debt was projected to hit 119 per cent of revenue by 2027.

Moody’s assessment was worse – they projected a rise in Tasmania’s debt burden to around 168 per cent in the fiscal year ending June 2028, from 107 per cent in fiscal year ending 2024.

The State Budget Treasurer Barnett handed down last week plunged our finances even deeper into debt. The Liberals are now further risking a credit rating downgrade.

Premier Rockliff and Treasurer Barnett need to outline how they’re going to avoid a credit rating downgrade that will slug Tasmanian taxpayers with even higher interest payments on the Liberal legacy debt.

If you can’t manage the budget, you can’t govern Tasmania. The results of having the Liberals in charge for 11 years speak for themselves. Tasmania’s finances have never been worse, and they’ve shredded any budget management credibility they once had.

Labor has changed, we’ve shown we’re serious about addressing the state’s budget crisis by introducing a bill to cap deficits, introducing legislation to bring forward the next Fiscal Sustainability Report, and outlining the critical first steps toward reining in wasteful spending in our ten-point-plan for budget repair.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer