The Liberal minority government needs to remember its precarious position when it comes to maintaining executive government and rolling out this year’s budget.
Last year, I put the government on notice with their debt-ridden budget projections, following the release of their 2024-25 state budget. I stopped short of voting against the budget then, but I am still waiting to find reason to vote for the budget this year, after Economist, Saul Eslake’s Independent review into the state’s finances was largely ignored.
The much-criticised deal between then Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) members and the Liberal Party, which resulted in several significant outcomes including Mr. Eslake’s independent review, was intended to provide the Liberal government with a mirror to take a long hard look at what they have done to Tasmania’s finances.
Instead of taking this review seriously, they have now released a half-baked response to the review, and according to Mr Eslake himself, the Government “appears to have rejected every recommendation in my report.”
In my view, this is simply not good enough for Tasmania. It opens the state to significant long-term economic issues, leaving us vulnerable to even worse multinational-corporate exploitation.
Mr Eslake also detailed that the Government response shows nothing but a “resolute refusal to give any consideration as to how … spending should be paid for, other than with borrowed money.”
He also added that “the consequences of that unwillingness to consider how spending should be paid for is evident in the deterioration in the Forward Estimates detailed in the Revised Estimates Report released today. It shows that the Government hasn’t taken a single decision designed to put Tasmania’s finances on a more stable trajectory since last year’s Budget.”
To summarise the government’s response in five words: ‘Thanks Saul, but no thanks.”
If the Liberal minority government want stronger support for this year’s budget, they need to pull their finger out and make some serious changes, not rubbish the ideas of a report they agreed to commission to form government.