Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to speak about the Budget from the perspective of the community. That is where the impact of the Budget is going to be felt. Speaking with people around Tasmania, with community service organisations, with people who work in the public service and with members of the community. There is a lot of fear in the community about the budget and what it is going to mean for Tasmania. We heard this morning about Neighbourhood Houses in Tasmania. Their funding was promised for Community Connectors. We heard from the minister this morning that three Neighbourhood Houses received their funding today, three months after the beginning of the financial year. They’ve been struggling to provide services and stressed about finances within their organisation, and people in the community have been impacted by that slowness for them to be provided with funding.
That is a really specific example, but I am hearing across the board from community service organisations who’ve been working with chronic underfunding for many years. They are unable to meet all the needs within the Tasmanian community as it stands right now. They are waiting anxiously for this budget. They’re anticipating cuts and are deeply concerned about what this means for the Tasmanians they support. It’s not just an idle or a false fear that they have. They know where the government’s priorities are because they’ve already been asked to provide information about services that they can cut within what they provide. They have been asked to consider what they can cut in other services. Where can other services be cut so that they can cover the cost of their own services? What’s in people’s mind, this budget, is cuts, cuts, cuts, and the fear that that brings to them.
There is so little regard for people in Tasmania at the moment. We’re all aware of the perilous state of our budget. We’re all aware that the situation isn’t good. Despite that, the government can see their way to funding a stadium in the middle of this crisis. They won’t fund services for Tasmanians to the level that they need, but they will pour over a billion dollars into a stadium that we don’t need, and they will add to our debt levels. We will be borrowing money to pay the debt and even pay the interest on the debt. Meanwhile, cuts everywhere else. Make no mistake, the stadium will result in cuts to services across Tasmania; cuts to public services, cuts to community services, and, ultimately, this will mean cuts to the people of Tasmania.
People are going hungry; 25 per cent of Tasmanians are currently skipping a meal every day, sometimes going a whole day without food because they can’t afford it. People who need dentures and dental work are waiting years for services because the services aren’t funded sufficiently. People are waiting for surgery, people who need mental‑health support, rehabilitation or housing – the list goes on. The people of Tasmania are already suffering, and are already unable to access the support that they need. Once that stadium kicks in and the government pour all their effort and all the money into funding a stadium, they have no other option but to cut services for Tasmanians, and that can only make the situation worse for people in Tasmania.
Tasmanians will suffer as a result of the government’s stadium austerity. There’s money for a stadium, while people miss out. The Premier, Mr Rockliff, likes to talk up how much he cares for Tasmanians. Meanwhile, we have a Treasurer who, as federal employment minister, advocated for and delivered job cuts across Australia. That is why we know that the situation in Tasmania is serious and is not how it should be. That is not the way a government should treat Tasmanians. Those are not the values that we need here in Tasmania at the moment. The people of Tasmania deserve better and the government must commit to funding the services people need in this interim budget and in the budgets to come. They have to stop prioritising a stadium over what Tasmanians really need.
[applause from the Public Gallery]
