David Bartlett’s last budget: more cuts to services, more debt and 5,000 less jobs for Tasmanians.
See online coverage of the 2009-10 budget handed down today:
Media release from Will Hodgman MP
Leader of the State Opposition
Thursday 11 June, 2009
Today’s budget confirms our fears that this is a short-term political fix for Labor and is not in the long-term interests of our State.
It is a 10 month Labor survival plan, nothing more.
This is a budget designed to get Labor through the next election, it is not designed to get Tasmania through these tough economic times.
The State Government will try to spin a story that the economy is in fine shape in the lead-up to the election. But the Budget Papers show otherwise.
- The Tasmanian economy is forecast to be in the doldrums for much longer than the rest of the nation.
- The budget papers show that business confidence and business investment are set to plummet next financial year.
- They show the unemployment rate will be well above the national average from 2011-12.
- Gross State Product will barely be 0.75% in 2010-11 – while the rest of the Australian economy is expected to be growing by 2.25%.
Despite all the Premier’s talk about taking tough decisions, the Premier has rewarded himself with a multi-million dollar boost to his department of spin doctors and minders in the election year, while cutting the Police budget.
The State Government will be spending more than it earns and is effectively being propped up by Kevin Rudd’s one-off Stimulus Package.
In a budget of over $4 billion, there will of course be new initiatives that we welcome – such as the payroll tax rebate. But business, the engine room of our economy, has suffered years of neglect under Labor and this is no fix – especially in the face of such grim business investment forecasts. This budget has nothing for the tourism or export sectors.
But overall it is clear that this Budget lacks the leadership that is required to drive our economy forward when the rest of the nation is expected to emerge from the global economic downturn.
