The Tasmanian Greens have unveiled a bold budget plan they say will improve the state’s finances by $1.4 billion while protecting essential services.
The plan takes aim at both major parties’ strategies, with leader Rosalie Woodruff warning of a worsening fiscal outlook.
“Getting the budget right is critical to securing services for Tasmanians into the future, without the vicious cuts to public service jobs or public land and asset sales the Liberals want,” she said.
“We show it’s possible to improve the budget bottom line by $1.4 billion and significantly reduce state debt, while also funding increased healthcare and housing for Tasmanians.”

At the heart of the Greens’ proposal is scrapping the Macquarie Point stadium project and introducing new revenue measures aimed at big corporations.
Their plan would end subsidies for the logging and racing industries and increase taxes on mining and salmon farming companies, property developers and gambling operators.

“The Greens’ plan puts Tasmanians first and the big corporations second,” Woodruff said.
Labor leader Dean Winter, who has ruled out doing any deals with the Greens to form government, said his party has “no plans for new taxes”.
He labelled the Greens “economic vandals” and argued they “should back in regional industries”.
“The Greens with any sort of control over Tasmanian government is a bad thing. They’ll shut down schools and hospitals because they’ll take away the revenue that helps pay for them,” he said.

“If they shut down salmon and forestry and mining like they want to, what will that do to the budget?”
“That would ruin our budget. It would ruin our economy. That’s why we can’t allow the Greens anywhere near government.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the Liberals back the state’s primary industries, which employ thousands of Tasmanians and that they would “not tax them”.
“We know that the Labor Party’s only chance of forming government is with the Greens,” he said.

“And so when you have a Green-Labor government, you’ll have higher taxes and Tasmanians will pay.”
“Our budget pointed to an operating surplus in 2030 and a fiscal surplus in 2032 and we said that we would not raise taxes and we won’t.”