Premier Jeremy Rockliff has again failed to rule out public service jobs cuts over and above the $300 million in cuts he’s already announced.

When asked in Question Time today the Premier waffled around the question without providing an answer.

The Premier did however give Tasmanians a taste of things to come, saying his delayed budget would be “challenging” and “difficult”.

Respected independent economist Saul Eslake has lashed the Liberals’ budget mismanagement, explaining that “Victoria is a basket-case but on two metrics commonly used by the rating agencies… Tasmania is worse than Victoria.”

Yesterday, you didn’t have to dig deep beneath the surface of Minister Eric Abetz’ inaugural speech to uncover that he was on the same page as Mr Eslake, describing current debt levels as “distressing” and saying “debt to pay for our regular expenditure is both unsustainable and ultimately immoral.”

With Mr Abetz’ influence in the new Liberal government clear, a decade of budget mismanagement and the Premier refusing to rule out further job cuts, Tasmanians would be right to brace for a Liberal budget disaster and savage job cuts come September 12.

Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer