Dr WOODRUFF question to PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF
The Tasmanian Planning Commission’s recommendation about building the stadium was blindingly clear: it should not be built and would have an overall negative social and economic impact on Tasmania. The $2 billion the stadium would add to state debt means Tasmanians would be paying $50 million every year for 30 years to service it, all for a stadium that doesn’t fit and we don’t need. You promised not to increase taxes to pay for your stadium, so which services are you going to cut to cover the astronomical cost? Will you be straight with Tasmanians and upper House members and table your plan for service cuts before parliament debates the stadium order?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her question. We will not be raising taxes to fund the enabling infrastructure of the stadium and will not be cutting services to fund the stadium. We’ll be managing our budget within our means, stadium or no stadium.
I’ve been very open, honest and transparent around the size of the public service. We need the right size public service. I’ve mentioned a figure of 2500 positions that you could say need to be reduced over time to get our public service in a sustainable position. It has grown a lot over the course of the last few years, particularly through COVID, and has exceeded population growth, so it is sensible to have a measured approach to ensuring we have the right size public service to deliver the services that Tasmanians quite rightly deserve.
We will also invest in the stadium to create more economic growth and opportunity for all Tasmanians. When you have economic growth and opportunity and jobs, you are then enabled better to fund essential services that Tasmanians care about through the increase in land taxes and there is lot of hotel investment, so that supports the bottom line and then we can make key decisions about where we should be funding the essential services that I know you care about, as do I.
I thank the Planning Commission for its work, and the Planning Commission did say that the stadium is constructable. You’ve been asking me questions, quite rightly, about noise mitigation, traffic flow, safety and other matters and all those issues can be mitigated. That is what the report said.
Mr Abetz – All doable.
Mr ROCKLIFF – All doable, so that’s good.
Dr Woodruff – That wasn’t the question they were asked. They were asked if it was the right thing to do.
Mr ROCKLIFF – I thank them for their work. My view is it is the right thing to do for Tasmania.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
Dr WOODRUFF – A supplementary question, Speaker?
The SPEAKER – I will hear the supplementary question.
Dr WOODRUFF – The Premier mentioned the 2500 State Service cuts and that goes to the heart of my question. Premier, can you provide a timeline for the cuts and the cuts by department, and whether you’ve issued any new instructions to department heads about those cuts and when they need to be achieved by?
The SPEAKER – Dr Woodruff, that’s quite a broad question.
Dr WOODRUFF – Specifically, about when they’re going to happen.
The SPEAKER – That is very broad. The honourable Premier might want to add further to his question because that is a very broad supplementary.
Mr ROCKLIFF – As I said previously, these are two separate issues. There is the issue of managing our budget within our means to ensure we can deliver the services that Tasmanians deserve and indeed need, and that will be our focus ensuring that Tasmanians have a sustainable budget. We’re working through the budget now. It will be delivered in November. We have a multi-partisan matters budget panel to which you can contribute, and thanks very much to the Treasurer for leading that work and that engagement with the crossbench. There is still an open invitation to the Labor Party to attend that as well and not boycott the budget panel. We’re open to ideas in terms of ensuring a good strong budget.
