Jeremy Rockliff

Premier of Tasmania



1 September 2021

Michael Ferguson, Minister for Finance

Greens shame Labor With Alternative Budget

Unlike the Labor Party, the Greens deserve some credit for doing some actual work to formulate an Alternative Budget.

However, as usual what they have produced has nothing to offer Tasmanians except job losses, tax hikes, and pain for thousands of families. 

The Greens would take a wrecking ball to some of our most important industries by taxing them out of existence, including a 150 per cent tax slug on mining, and 10 per cent on fish farming, while gutting important industries like racing and forestry.

It’s the usual suite of kooky Green policies that would cost thousands of jobs, many in regional areas, and send our unemployment rate skyrocketing.

As a result Tasmanian families would be moved into poverty.

The Greens also want to stifle development by defunding our highly successful Office of the Coordinator-General, and cutting State funding for roads and bridges by $320 million.

This represents a 16 per cent cut to total State road funding over the period and would result in a much larger reduction in federal funding for major road projects which are often funded at a ratio of 1:4.

These cuts would be more than enough to defund the $576 million Bridgewater Bridge replacement, the $349 million South-East Traffic Solution projects and the $280 million Bass Highway Action Plan.

They would also slash vital infrastructure projects such as the Northern Regional Prison, defund important environmental initiatives such as the Tamar dredging program, and refuse to invest in our sporting future by defunding our Stadium Authority Trust. 

They would also destroy the Tasmanian way of life by once again resurrecting Labor's failed shack tax with a vacant residence tax proposal, and reversing our land tax policies that will provide hip-pocket relief for thousands of Tasmanian families.

And despite all this, they still have no pathway back to surplus – only offering four years of increased debt and deficit, like Labor's promised election spending.

The Greens would clearly send Tasmania backwards on every measure, but at least they’ve had the courage of their convictions to disclose their policies and explain how they would pay for them.

This stands in stark contrast to Labor, which has proven yet again this week they have absolutely no Alternative Budget or plan for our State.



More Media Releases from Michael Ferguson

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