Guy Barnett will hand down his first state budget amid challenging times for his party

Australia Broadcast Center

25-05-2025

It's not the ideal setting for Treasurer Guy Barnett's first state budget.
After watching the Liberals lose all their Tasmanian Lower House seats at this month's federal election, new EMRS polling released on Monday showed the state Liberal Party slumping below Labor in the polls for the first time since 2009.
The government's woes were further compounded on Saturday night, with a poor showing at the Legislative Council elections.
The Liberals look set to lose one of their four Upper House seats, with election experts forecasting independent Casey Hiscutt is on track to defeat Liberal Stephen Parry in Montgomery and claim the seat his mother Leonie held for the Liberals since 2013.
The Liberals also fell flat in Nelson, where candidate Marcus Vermey has failed to win a single booth off independent Meg Webb, including in the traditional Liberal heartland of Sandy Bay.
Ms Webb has so far attracted a whopping 52 per cent of the primary vote, with Mr Vermey well back on 34.1 per cent.
Political analyst Kevin Bonham says the result shows the issues with the party's brand aren't confined to the federal election, like frontbencher Felix Ellis tried to suggest this week.
"There just seems to be no appetite for voters to elect more government members to the Legislative Council," he said.
"Voters want the government to be scrutinised."
But Dr Bonham says there's no shame in the Liberals, represented by former senator Stephen Parry, losing the seat of Montgomery.
Mr Hiscutt leads Mr Parry by 2.47 per cent on primary votes, with Dr Bonham projecting him to extend that lead when preferences are counted on Thursday.
"They [the Liberals] won that seat in 2013 and that was a time when the Liberal brand was soaring high and there was massive resentment to the Labor-Green coalition government in that area of the state.
"So it was a smart move for Leonie Hiscutt to run as a Liberal even though previous Hiscutts had been independents.
"But at the moment it was not a smart move — if Casey Hiscutt had run as Liberal, someone would have come out and out flanked him as an independent, so he's done the clever thing here."
Casey Hiscutt's great uncles Desmond and Hugh Hiscutt were previously members of the Legislative Council in the 1980s and 1990s.
Whatever the reason, the Liberals' likely defeat in Montgomery makes things even tougher for the government.
The six major party MLCs are outnumbered by eight independents and Green Cassy O'Connor.
The Liberals, with just three MLCs — ministers Nick Duigan, Kerry Vincent and Jo Palmer — need the support of five other MLCs to pass legislation.
That means either five crossbenchers, or Labor and three independents.
It makes it harder for a government already frustrated by the Upper House not passing some of its legislation, like its push to allow certain development applications to bypass local councils.
The government will need to display some great negotiation skills to get controversial plans, like its special legislation allowing the Macquarie Point stadium to be built, through the Upper House.
Getting three independents to join the Labor Party in supporting the stadium won't be an easy task.
The government already had its hands full getting two of Tania Rattray, Bec Thomas, Dean Harriss and Ruth Forrest to support the legislation.
Now it'll also have to woo Mr Hiscutt, who says he supports the stadium but wants to scrutinise the legislation before guaranteeing he'll vote for it.
The recent blows for the Liberal Party make Mr Barnett's first budget even more important.
It needs some good PR to get the public back onside.
But that's not an easy task when the state is on track to reach almost $10 billion of debt by 2027-28, and doesn't yet have a concrete date to return to surplus.
None of that makes it easy to deliver the kind of big funding injections that put smiles on the faces of Tasmanians.
At a press conference on Sunday announcing another year of record health expenditure, Mr Barnett said the budget would contain a "very clear pathway to surplus", but refused to answer whether the document would forecast one being achieved in the next four years.
And, crucially, he refused to rule out making some calls that will stir up public opposition, like accelerating public sector spending cuts, or unveiling plans to sell state-owned companies.
Here's a snippet from the press conference:
Journalist: When will we see [economist] Saul Eslake's report into government business enterprises?
Mr Barnett: I'll have more to say about that later this week
Journalist: So is that your budget day surprise, you're selling assets?
Mr Barnett: Let's be very clear in terms of the budget. We're very focused on building a better Tasmania now and for the future, investing in the things that matter for Tasmanians like health; today is an excellent example of that, we've got record funding in health. I'm very excited and looking forward to budget day and I'll have more to say on Thursday.
Journalist : So how many assets are you going to sell?
Mr Barnett: I'm looking forward to budget day on Thursday.
The press conference seemed to point to a budget that could contain some tough love, right at a time when the government needs an easy sell the most.
No pressure, Mr Barnett.
And it all comes at a time when the government's task of getting the public back onside is set to get even tougher, with its draft stadium legislation set to go out for public consultation in the next week.
After EMRS polling showed the Liberals losing the most support in the state's north and north-west, being seen to be ramming through a project that polling says is deeply unpopular there will be pretty tough to sell to the public.
And that could make the task of convincing Tasmanians to elect them to a fifth straight term in office at the 2028 state election that little bit tougher than it's already looking.