You cannot demand more spending every day and then turn around and complain about the state of the budget.
In this speech to Parliament, I call out that contradiction directly — and make the case for something better: consistency, responsibility and a genuine commitment to Tasmania’s long-term financial position.
I also highlight a rare moment where Parliament worked as one in our state’s interest on GST reform — proof that when we choose to, we can rise above politics and deliver for Tasmania.
This is a speech about accountability, but also about leadership — and the standard Tasmanians should expect from all of us.
Watch the speech below, followed by the full Hansard transcript.
Mr FERGUSON (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, thank you to the Labor Party for bringing on this matter of public importance. I agree that the state’s finances are a matter of public importance, and I’ve said that for a very long time. We need to see a sense of belief across all sides of this parliament, in the need for responsible budget management and we need to see consistency on that. I’ve heard the Labor party in particular talking out of both sides of its mouth on this issue. On the one hand, almost daily, if not daily, raising issues of particular service areas and demanding that the government spend more money. On the other hand, it’s probably every other day, the Labor party decrying the state of the state budget and state finances, with an implication that the government has been spending too much money and should cut back or, depending on which podcast the shadow treasurer might be on, that we need to raise taxation and therefore restore higher levels of revenue going forward. That’s a political point which I stand by.
However, there has been a glimmer of hope. A positive thing has occurred, and I want to congratulate every member of this House who combined on our last sitting, to support the Treasurer’s motion on restoring genuine Horizontal Fiscal Equity (HFE) to the GST carve-up in this country. I wish I saw it more to be honest, but it was a moment where I saw this parliament combine around the state’s interest. We’ve had our squabbles many times, and we’ll have them in the future, where people are taking positions along party lines. I want to see when our state’s long-term interest is challenged by another level of government’s decision-making, that we as one parliament would speak with a clear voice for our state’s interests, just like the Tasmanian people would rather expect and demand that we do.
I believe it was a creditable day for this House when we sent a clear, and I believe unanimous, message to Canberra and the Productivity Commission that we want to see the original John Howard, Peter Costello model of GST sharing re-established in this country. That was a very pro-Tasmanian position to take, and we could cast on, and I won’t, about the history of how the HFE formula was changed about seven or eight years ago. I think it was an incorrect decision at that time, but that decision sat with both Liberal and Labor. That’s just a fact of history, and I want to move past that because it hasn’t been good for Tasmania – it’s been very good for Western Australia; no wonder that they’re the only voice rattling the cage right now to protect that un-Australian formula because it’s unjust and it’s been wrong.
As it turned out, despite the intentions of the Liberal government and the Labor opposition at the time, the predictions that were made at that time have not followed through. Western Australia has been running away with billions of dollars of surpluses, and a capacity to fund services that other states have not been able to match up with. Therefore, the No Worse Off Guarantee has not been sufficient, because all it’s done is bring the other states up to where they would have been. Meanwhile Western Australia is still ahead, and it’s been unjust.
I make these points. I want to see more of that: consensus thinking. Play your daily politics, but in the end, take a position that is for our state.
On budget management, I want to see that happen as well because this state, like every other, got its budget walloped during COVID, and frankly no state has recovered from that except Western Australia. The national finances are challenged in a similar way, but I want to see less of that hypocrisy. If the Labor Party want to attack the government over its so-called MPI on ‘cuts and waste’, and therefore attacking the government on fiscal discipline, then stop demanding that we spend more money all the time because you cannot have it both ways. Stop demanding robust finances while refusing to publish an alternative budget for the last 12 years. In every one of those 12 years the Greens have at least brought an alternative budget, and I want to see an end to that hypocrisy.
I want to say that I stand by the Treasurer as a responsible manager in this space and commend him for his work and in this minority parliament in particular, commend him for the way in which he’s introduced the multi-partisan budget forum. It’s a great initiative. I thank the Labor party for bringing forward this MPI here today so I can make a contribution.
