Labor leader Josh Willie has challenged the Liberal government to explain how it will honour election commitments after new Treasurer Eric Abetz flagged challenges with the state budget.
Speaking outside Parliament on Monday, Willie said Tasmanians were questioning whether promised funding would survive inevitable cuts.
“They made a number of commitments to the community and a number of commitments that are now with serious questions,” he said.
“What does it mean for all the community groups that they made promises to?”
Willie blamed 11 years of Liberal financial management for the situation, saying the government had been “in complete denial” about the state’s finances until recently.
“You had the premier saying that there was a pathway to surplus that didn’t exist,” Willie said.
“You had the premier saying that the debt was manageable when it was spiralling out of control and continues to spiral out of control.”
The opposition leader said budget repair would dominate when parliament resumes on Tuesday, calling it “one of the greatest challenges this parliament will face”.
Treasurer Eric Abetz, also speaking on Monday, admitted the budget was under pressure and said MPs needed to work together to fix it.
He has set up a multi-partisan budget panel, open to all crossbench MPs, ahead of an interim budget being handed down in November.
“Josh Willie has indicated that they won’t be participating in the panel,” Abetz said.
“… They are not interested in cooperating and that’s their decision, that is their right. But I think it’s indicative of the fact that it’s still the same old Labor under new leadership.”
Willie has argued Labor should stay outside the panel to “hold all parliamentarians accountable”.
In a statement on Sunday, Abetz said the interim budget would “not be the same” as the one that triggered the last state election.
He confirmed “not all previously committed funding will be included”, but gave no detail on what would be cut.
“Budget repair measures already underway will continue, including the productivity and efficiency measures along with the state service non-essential hiring freeze,” he said.
