Labor MP Scott Bacon has today confirmed that if given the chance Labor would bankrupt the State – again.
When we came to office we inherited $1.1 billion of accumulative deficits, net debt approaching $400 million and 1,000 job cuts embedded in the budget, and no attempts by Labor to rewrite history will erase that fact.
Mr Bacon should stop attacking Treasury over the Risks Report. Blaming Treasury for describing just how bad the finances were when he was Finance Minister is taking shooting the messenger to new lows.
In response to the mess Labor and the Greens left, we are taking strong and disciplined action to put the budget back on track.
As Mr Bacon noted, our GST relativities are now at record highs. Over time and as our economy strengthens our GST revenue will inevitably decline, which is why it’s so important that the GST windfall gain not be spent on recurrent expenditure we won’t be able to afford in the future.
As for Mr Bacon’s Green-like conspiracy claims, the fact is, none of the states knew what their share of GST would be for 2015-16 until the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission released its findings a few weeks ago.
Tasmanians would remember that we had to fight tooth and nail for Tasmania’s share to be confirmed by the Federal Government at last month’s COAG meeting.
The Liberal Government is getting on with the job of fixing the budget mess, creating jobs and delivering better results in health, education and public safety, and next Thursday Tasmanians will be able to see more details about exactly how we plan to deliver.