Health Minister Bridget Archer has been pressed for details on $700 million in health cuts flagged in the state budget, with Labor asking which jobs, services and programs will be axed.
Archer was asked several times during question time in parliament on Tuesday, but did not provide a list of specific cuts.
“Health spending will increase over the forwards,” Archer said.
She pointed to a $15 billion investment over the next four years, with health now making up 35% of the state budget.
Archer said the government had been “very upfront and open” about the need to find savings to keep the health system sustainable.
She named planned changes including cutting spending on locum and agency staff, claiming more back from Medicare, reducing the number of deputy secretaries and shifting to digital systems to cut duplication.
Outside the Royal Hobart Hospital, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) Tasmanian branch secretary Emily Shepherd said members were “shocked and distressed” by the budget.
“Whichever way you want to look at it, there are real cuts to the health system coming,” Shepherd said.
She said even accepting the government’s $265 million net increase by 2029, health still faced a $437 million shortfall over four years.
“It’s difficult to reconcile how millions of dollars can be found in efficiencies when the health department has already pursued improved supply chains and contracts, stopped staff travel and accommodation without it affecting staffing levels,” Shepherd said.
“The reality of stripping staffing from non-frontline positions is increased workloads on nurse and midwives performing non-clinical work, which leads to further inefficiencies in health care delivery and a more disillusioned and burnt-out workforce.”
She said the ANMF was negotiating with the state government to ensure Tasmania’s health system was “adequately resourced”.
“The ANMF will not stand by and see nurses and midwives pay for these operational efficiencies with their own health and wellbeing.”
Labor leader Josh Willie said former treasurer Michael Ferguson had already squeezed savings out of health and vacancy controls had been in place since 2024.
“Do you seriously believe $700 million can be ripped out of Tasmania’s health system without hurting patients?” Willie said.
“What is left to cut?”
Treasurer Eric Abetz defended the savings, saying they were needed to reduce the state’s reliance on borrowing.
