Tasmania’s 2024 state budget will provide record cost-of-living relief and support the state’s most vulnerable people, according to Premier Jeremy Rockliff.
The budget, which will be handed down today, includes $460 million for concessions, $110 million for mental health services and $20 million for housing support.
It also allocates additional funding of almost $1.4 billion, including $469 million for health services and infrastructure investment, $242 million for education and facilities.
$105 million for community service organisations and $59 million for police and emergency services is also included.
“That’s what you’ll see in the budget. A very good record to build on our existing very good record when we picked up a train wreck in 2014 and rebuilt an economy,” Rockliff said.
“Within rebuilding an economy, we rebuilt a forest industry that didn’t close down and send thousands of workers, 4,000 workers, to the scrap heap.”
Labor has criticised the government’s approach, saying it is ‘putting the state’s future on the credit card’ and increasing debt to $8.5 billion by 2027-28 from $3.5 billion in 2023-24.
Leader Dean Winter said the government has ‘completely lost control’.
Rockliff believes now is not the time to cut back on essential services amidst the cost-of-living crisis and called on the opposition to deliver an alternative budget.
