Opposition pledges billion-dollar 'budget crisis' fix
Tasmania's alternative government says it will immediately save the state $1 billion if it wins next month's snap election.
Having cited poor budget management when driving through a successful no-confidence motion against the government, Opposition Leader Dean Winter unveiled his repair plan on Saturday.
The Labor plan is designed to immediately find $1 billion in savings, while it also commits, in government, to put any windfall tax revenue gains towards debt reduction.
Figures released by treasury on Wednesday forecast a worse financial position than estimated in the May 2025/26 state budget.
Treasury predicted net debt would reach $13 billion in 2027/28, above the budget forecast of $10.2 billion.
Mr Winter said the "crippling" debt had put Tasmania into a budget crisis and required a change of leadership to fix.
"Tasmania has gone from having the strongest balance sheet of any state or territory when the Liberals were first elected in 2014 (and have) taken Tasmania to be almost bankrupt," he said.
"The size and scope of the problem is enormous. The Liberals and Jeremy Rockliff have been warned about this by treasury for at least four years, and they've done nothing about it."
Labor plans to establish a debt reduction fund, audit the capital investment program and ensure public assets are not privatised to ensure revenue streams among other ideas.
They also would establish an internal jobs market in the public service, designed to stop the growth of the workforce.
"If we create more mobility in the public service, we'll get a public service that's more agile, it's about reorganising and re-prioritising and stopping the jobs growth, which is unsustainable," Shadow Treasurer Josh Willie said.
Liberal Treasurer Guy Barnett said the budget plan was "one giant con" because $171.5 million worth of cuts to capital works did not specify which projects.
The government accused Labor of wanting to sell the state's stake in the Marinus Link that would allow Tasmania and its hydropower to become the nation's battery.
"Dean Winter wants to sell a stake in Marinus (but) we are not going to … give effectively more control and more power of our power to the Victorian premier," Mr Rockliff said.
The Liberals have pledged measures to cut spending in the public service but abandoned potential state asset sales as a means of paying down debt.
The Liberals (14 seats) and Labor (10) face an uphill battle to reach the 18-seat mark required to govern in majority.
Tasmania heads to the polls on July 19.
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