Saul Eslake’s Independent Review of Tasmania’s State Finances has delivered a shocking and sobering verdict: the Liberals have driven Tasmania to the brink of financial disaster.
When Labor left office in 2014, Tasmania had zero net debt. After 10 years of the Liberals, the state’s finances are now on track to become “worse than that of any other state or territory over the next three years”.
Mr Eslake’s report has found the deterioration of Tasmania’s economy is “entirely attributable” to state government policy. He couldn’t be clearer that the Liberals have put Tasmania in this terrible position.
The impacts of the Liberals’ economic mismanagement will be felt for years to come. Mr Eslake has found that interest payments on $16 billion of Liberal debt will exceed more than $700 million per year-enough to pay for a brand new major hospital every 12 months-and the state’s credit rating potentially faces being downgraded.
Treasurer Ferguson-once again at the centre of the worst failings of this government-has already started slashing public services Tasmanians rely on. The report condemned his vacancy control policy and efficiency dividends as a very poor means of achieving expenditure savings that will have an adverse impact on the most vulnerable Tasmanians.
Tasmanians will be rightly wondering why they have nothing to show for the Liberals’ budget mismanagement. The economy is flatlining, public services are at breaking point and planeloads of working age Tasmanians leaving the state for better opportunities elsewhere.
Above all, this shocking new report exposes that the Liberal Party cannot be trusted to manage Tasmania’s finances – and particularly so with Michael Ferguson in charge.
Josh Willie MP
Shadow Treasurer
