The Tasmanian Liberal Party's costings of the 2025 State Election confirm that all its policies can be implemented within existing expenditure commitments, without new or increased taxes and without adding a single dollar to debt.
"I am pleased to advise that 90 per cent of our election commitments can be met through initiatives that were already funded in our Budget," Treasurer Guy Barnett said.
"Further, we have found savings through the campaign, meaning the Budget bottom line will be better off coming out of the campaign under the Liberals.
"Unlike Labor, we won't be relying on any Budget blackholes to show our commitments.
"Dean Winter admitted in a recent Advocate interview they had no plan to return the Budget to surplus sooner than what is already forecast."
Our election commitments to improve areas like healthcare, childcare and education, housing, and community services have not impacted the Tasmanian Liberal Government's sensible pathway to surplus by 2029/30, as previously stated.
In addition, the Tasmanian Liberal Government will implement a range of savings initiatives, allowing all our new commitments to be fulfilled while achieving an overall improvement in the net operating balance.
Table 1 shows our opex commitments, together with Budget Savings totalling $168 million over the Budget and Forward Estimates.
Table 1 - Liberal Party Opex Commitments and Savings
Table 1 also outlines several savings initiatives that will be implemented by a re-elected Liberal Government, allowing commitments to be fulfilled within existing expenditure commitments while still improving the net operating balance.
Capital expenditure commitments are shown below in Table 2.
Table 2 - Liberal Party Capex
In relation to savings measures outlined above, in addition to our existing fiscal strategy, the following additional savings measures will be implemented to further improve the State's fiscal position:
- reduce expenditure on agency marketing and media costs through centralising media and communications;
- reduce the Treasurer's Reserve;
- simplify Government procurement processes and arrangements, to reduce waste and costs for businesses; and
- implement office and leasing improvements to ensure that the State Service can work in a contemporary environment.
As committed during the 2024 State election, a re-elected Liberal Government will also continue to reform the superannuation liability that the Tasmanian community inherited after Labor raided and then closed the Superannuation Provision Account.
Tasmanians now pay close to $400 million per year due to this ongoing cost, and the Tasmanian Liberal Party will continue to seek to mitigate the ongoing burden to the State we inherited from the Labor Party's raid of this account.
Labor's financial mismanagement is a continuing legacy, and this election is no different.
After a $300 million blackhole was identified in Labor's costings, it has also now been revealed that Labor's election commitments will have a significant negative impact on the Budget's net operating balance over the Budget and Forward Estimates Years.
Table 3 - Labor Party Opex
The Labor Party's capex commitments similarly did not properly account for their public commitments, including those set out in their own media releases. The capex for their announcements far exceeded the amounts that Labor had specified in their own costings.
Table 4 - Labor Party CapEx
The difference between the Liberal Party's and Labor Party's operational expenditure commitments is shown below in Table 5.
Table 5 - Opex Comparison: Liberal vs Labor
Note: $215 million of the Liberal Party's commitments were outlined in the 2025-26 State Budget Papers, meaning that the net expenditure is $23 million.
