Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I thank Labor for bringing this MPI on in relation to financial management, and they have raised the issue of what was writ large in the Auditor-General’s report tabled today in this House. It recognised the likely insolvency, named it up, insolvency of TT-Line. Able to pay debts in the short term, but in the long term there is the issue of insolvency for our major carrier of freight and business and tourism to this state.
We know as the Leader of the Opposition and members of the opposition have raised time and time again, and they remind us, that this has been the state’s major infrastructure stuff-up in Tasmanian history. It certainly rings alarm bells for all of us, or it should. But when we heard this morning from the Premier it was about denial.
There was an Auditor-General’s report, and one listens to the Auditor-General or should be listening to the Auditor-General and taking heed. However, quite often, unfortunately, it seems the Premier’s behest, and some other members of the government, to deny that advice that’s writ large in that report. We’ve seen various other reports and other economic commentators, like Saul Eslake, raising concerns about the Budget. We as the Greens, as Mr Bayley has already said, are very concerned about this budget, as is Deloitte’s Mr Hodges, and there has been comment on the Budget. If we go back to the Auditor-General’s report, and I don’t believe Labor has talked about this, but it’s the debt-to-equity ratio which is also of concern.
If you look at one of the tables in that report, there is a 209 per cent debt-to-equity ratio and concern for TT-Line Company. There are $894 million of borrowings and over $56.5 million dollars will be interest paid on that. That is significant. What I’d like also to point out, and we’ve talked about the biggest infrastructure stuff-up in Tasmanian history, but I put a caveat on that, what about saying, naming this up as the biggest infrastructure stuff-up to this date? What about the stadium, and what about the likelihood of this being the biggest white elephant and the biggest millstone around Tasmania’s neck?
I feel sorry for the Treasurer who’s just about to leave the Chamber. I feel I have a modicum of sorrow to you, Treasurer, because it’s as if you’ve inherited an intergenerational debt from your forebear, the previous treasurer, who has handed you this dud of a budget from May that didn’t get delivered, but this is an intergenerational treasurer’s debt and concern because the Treasurer has had to put the Budget together. Mark my words, and the Greens have been saying it loud and clear: this stadium will be of significant concern for financial management and mismanagement of the state.
