The Rockliff-Ferguson government's first budget - the ninth under the Liberals - is confirmation of a government that has completely lost its way.
Just 12 months after going to the polls early promising stable government, we instead have chaos and instability, and a new Premier whose weakness and failure of economic leadership leaves Tasmanian households struggling with the cost of living.
The cost of living is rising more than twice as fast as wages, making life harder and harder for families, and putting further pressure on overstretched workers.
Water and power prices are going up and the government has introduced new taxes on every household, and yet support for pensioners and concession card holders was cut in the budget
The Rockliff-Ferguson budget has delivered record debt – $5.2 billion and counting - and housing and health services are at crisis levels.
Under the Liberals' economic management, Tasmanians are not only paying more for the basics, they're also finding it harder to find somewhere to live, with soaring rents and the dream of owning a home increasingly out of reach.
All this while they have failed to deliver numerous project they have promised Tasmanians, including:
- The Glenorchy ambulance superstation
- The Burnie ambulance superstation
- Cosgrove High School
- Macquarie Point
- The Cradle Mountain Cableway
- Project X in the Huon
- The $580 million redevelopment of the Launceston General Hospital.
All this government has delivered is a cost-of-living crisis, new taxes, falling real wages, declining population, record debt, and a ridiculous proposal to spend $750 million on a floating stadium in Hobart.
Tasmanians deserve so much better than the future outlined for them in this budget.
They deserve a government that is serious about tackling the cost of living crisis.
Mr Rockliff and Mr Ferguson need to scrap the bin tax, reverse their cuts to cost of living support, begin addressing the soaring cost of rents and back a real wage rise for workers.
Tasmanians also deserve a government that's serious about getting Tasmania off the bottom of the economic ladder by grasping the economic opportunities of the future.
This means developing our abundant renewable energy resources, working with our primary industries and innovative businesses and driving real, transformative change in our education system.
We need to get back to the basics of economic management and deliver a better economic future for our state and all Tasmanians.
Rebecca White MP
Labor Leader
