When Rebecca White makes her budget reply in Parliament next week there will be nowhere to hide for a fence-sitting, policy-free Labor Party.
After another year of being all complaints and no solutions, Labor must finally be honest with Tasmanians on what their policies are, what those policies would cost, and which projects and services that the Hodgman Liberal Government is delivering would they cut to pay for them.
In delivering a budget which maintains the momentum and invests for growth, the Hodgman Liberal Government has chosen to prioritise record investments in health, education and infrastructure.
If record investment in health, education and infrastructure are the ‘wrong priorities’ as Scott Bacon claims, how much would they take out of those budgets and what would they spend it on?
What would they cut to find $285 million to pay for their stated 3 per cent wages policy? If they don’t support our record $3.6 billion infrastructure investments, which projects would they scrap?
Labor’s track record when budgets get tough is that they sacked a nurse a day for nine months, sacked over a hundred police officers, shut entire hospital wards and tried to close schools. With the architects of those savage cuts still Labor’s leaders, it’s no wonder they run a mile from scrutiny.