After 10 years of mismanaging Tasmania’s finances, the Liberal government have continued to fudge figures, creating budget black holes across the forward estimates.

Premier Rockliff’s minority Liberal government has delivered what can only be described as the worst budget in Tasmania’s history, and people are even asking if Michael Ferguson is the worst Treasurer we’ve ever had.

The budget black holes have swallowed up $600 million of health cuts – damaging a health system that is already the worst in the nation.

They’ve swallowed the Northern Heart Centre, which hasn’t got a single dollar allocated to it – breaking a $120 million election promise.

And the Liberals are currently budgeting to spend $12 million less on wages in the Department of Police, Fire and emergency Management than was actually spent last year - which can only be achieved with job cuts.

There are only two things that can happen with Premier Rockliff and Treasurer Ferguson’s dodgy figures. They are going to implement further cuts to meet their estimates or they will blow the budget even further.

Tasmanians will already have to pay $1.4 billion in interest on Jeremy Rockliff’s record debt over the next four years, with Tasmania’s finances set to be the worst in the nation. Future Tasmanians will be saddled with $8.6 billion of debt - and counting.

The Liberals have no plan to stabilise the debt. In fact, Premier Rockliff and Treasurer Ferguson can’t even tell you when the debt will stop growing.

They’ve put Tasmania’s credit rating at risk which will send interest rates higher, increasing the burden on Tasmanians and sucking more resources from essential services and infrastructure projects.

Labor is committed to addressing our state’s finances and have outlined initial steps we would take on day one to start chipping away at the Liberals’ budget disaster.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer