Premier and Treasurer Peter Gutwein will plunge Tasmania into further record debt, delivering a State Budget that mortgages the state's future.
Shadow Treasurer Shane Broad said Mr Gutwein had today revealed growing and unprecedented debt over each year for the foreseeable future in a broken Budget that also slashes future funding for critical infrastructure that the Liberals promised just months ago at the state election.
Dr Broad said taxpayers would fork out more than $300 million over the next four years to service the debt Mr Gutwein and the Liberals had now imposed on them.
"Tasmania's debt will spiral to $3.5 billion by 2025 and it's taxpayers who will foot that bill but not once today during his Budget speech, did the Premier make mention of this," Dr Broad said.
"Ignoring the problem is not a Budget strategy.
"And Tasmanians will have little to show for it considering Mr Gutwein has today confirmed that he will not deliver on the crucial infrastructure projects - that's housing, hospitals, roads and ambulance stations - that he promised he would build in his con-job election campaign.
"This is a government that has time and again proven itself incapable of delivering the important infrastructure a rapidly-growing Tasmania requires and deserves and today's Budget has underlined that going forward convincingly.
"The Liberals promised to keep Tasmania net debt free and they failed.
"They made huge promises on infrastructure at the election and they are now reneging on that to the tune of $650 million.
"But the biggest broken promise of all was Peter Gutwein's claim that he was a good budget manager. He is not."
Shane Broad MP
Shadow Treasurer
