Michael Ferguson’s debt-ridden first budget will see Tasmanian families slugged well into the future.
It’s ordinary mums and dads who will suffer for the Rockliff-Ferguson Government’s plan to borrow $3.5 million a day every day and accumulate an interest bill of $611 million over the next four years.
This plan can mean only one thing for Tasmanian families – cuts to services or new taxes, or both.
Mr Ferguson has wrecked the State Budget at his first opportunity by having Tasmanian families foot the bill for his incompetence at the same time failing to outline any plan to deal with the rising cost of living in the midst of a cost of living crisis.
With inflation now at 5.8 per cent and wage growth only at 2.8 per cent, Mr Ferguson’s first budget does nothing to reflect the fact that wages aren’t keeping up with the rising basic costs all families face.
Tasmanians have nothing to show for a budget that plunges the state into massive debt at the same time education outcomes have gone backwards, health waiting lists continue to blow out and Tasmanians cannot find affordable housing.
Mr Ferguson will forever be remembered as not only a disastrous Health Minister who destroyed the health and hospital system, but now also as the Treasurer who wrecked the Budget at his first try.
Shadow Treasurer
