Consistent with the Charter of Budget Responsibility Act 2007, I have today provided a copy of our Fiscal Strategy Statement to the Secretary of the Treasury.
The Liberals have a strong record of financial management; when we came to Government, we turned around the sea of red ink forecast under Labor and the Greens and consistently delivered surplus budgets until the onset of COVID.
Our prudent financial management enabled us to invest heavily to protect Tasmanians’ lives and livelihoods during that once-in-a-century event.
Never forget, when Labor was last in Government they raided the State’s $1.5 billion superannuation fund to try and prop up their gross budget mismanagement.
Tasmanians are still paying the price of this Labor-Green super raid, with around $400 million currently paid out of the budget per year to cover the superannuation costs of former state servants.
The Liberals’ Fiscal Strategy is below.
The Tasmanian Liberals’ Fiscal Strategy
A re-elected majority Liberal Government will continue to ensure the prosperity and resilience of the State by supporting sustainable public services, fostering economic growth and promoting a business-friendly investment environment. This includes carefully assessing the impact of major government infrastructure initiatives, strengthening the links to the Fiscal Principles embedded in the Charter of Budget Responsibility Act 2007, and providing responsible financial management.
The Tasmanian Liberals’ Fiscal Strategy aims to provide flexibility over time, allowing for a dynamic response to changing economic and fiscal considerations, thereby ensuring a well-adapted and sustainable fiscal framework for the State’s growth and stability.
Our long-term Fiscal Objectives include:
- Maintaining our Aa2 (Moody’s) and AA+ (S&Ps) credit ratings – a re-elected majority Liberal Government will work to sustain Tasmania’s existing credit ratings throughout the forward estimates and will consider establishing a minimum credit rating requirement for certain government businesses;
- Balancing the budget – a re-elected majority Liberal Government will work to constrain the annual increase in general government operating expenses to below the long-term average growth in revenue;
- Net debt to GSP at less than 10 per cent – by delivering prudent financial management, a re-elected majority Liberal Government will minimise general government debt to ensure debt servicing obligations are manageable within our budgetary constraints;
- Sustainably investing in infrastructure so that it is no less than depreciation – a re-elected majority Liberal Government will respond to economic and population growth, plan for the community’s future needs, and ensure the maintenance of existing assets by investing strongly in economically productive infrastructure;
- Maintaining our competitive tax regime – with state taxes to be efficient, fair, simple, stable, and no new taxes to be introduced;
- Requiring government businesses to deliver outcomes consistent with Tasmanian Liberals’ policy objectives – deliver services to Tasmanians at the lowest sustainable cost while also growing our economy and engaging with business and community in a constructive manner; and
- Not growing back-office public service numbers on a per capita basis – a re-elected majority Liberal Government will remain committed to improving the provision of services to the community, including growth in frontline workers. In this context, the Tasmanian Liberals will seek to improve public sector productivity by carefully managing and transparently managing full-time equivalent growth.
A re-elected majority Liberal Government’s fiscal policy will be set and assessed against the key fiscal measures as set out in the 2023-24 Budget Fiscal Strategy (Chapter 3, Budget Paper 1). The Government’s objectives and targets for the period 2024-25 to 2027-28 will be to progress towards the delivery of the Budget Fiscal Strategy, which has been framed to give effect to and explicitly identifies links to the Principles of Sound Fiscal Management under the Act.
