The Advocate's Matt Maloney sits down with Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff to discuss the state budget.
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00:00Premier, how are you feeling on Budget Day today?
00:03I'm feeling good, Matt. Thanks very much.
00:05And I commend our Treasurer, Guy Barnett, on his first Budget.
00:09He's worked very diligently. A lot of hard work.
00:12And what I'm most pleased about is the fact that our economy is going to continue to grow.
00:17Unemployment is going to continue to be low.
00:20So people in work is so very important.
00:23And we have that pathway to surplus, which of course is also very important.
00:29So what we've got is balancing...
00:32We've got the balance right in terms of ensuring we are being very responsible
00:37with where we are applying resources.
00:39I'm proud of the fact that over the course of the next four years,
00:44$14.5 billion going into health, $10 million a day.
00:49And that is a testament to the fact that we care about the services that Tasmanians care about.
00:55Education the same.
00:57Prime Minister Palmer out yesterday, $9.9 million going into education
01:02and continuing those school upgrades across the north and northwest of Tasmania.
01:09How does the government justify allowing expenses to blow out by half a billion dollars in one year in 2024-25?
01:20Well, what you've seen when it comes to health expenditure is that we are accounting for increasing demand
01:27when it comes to the forward estimates.
01:29And look, it would be very easy for us to have a surplus a lot more quickly.
01:37We could cut that $10 million a day to $7 million a day in health and return to surplus very quickly.
01:46We're not going to do that.
01:47We care about Tasmanians and the services that they quite rightly demand but also deserve.
01:54And it's about ensuring we are prudent.
01:57We've got an efficiency and productivity unit that we're going to look very closely and diligently
02:03at the services that Tasmanians need and require and those positions within the public service
02:09that of course we value and the ones that are actually ensuring that Tasmanians are being delivered those services.
02:18Whether that be our schools, our hospitals, our police on the beach etc.
02:23Why shouldn't Tasmanians worry about being eventually $10 billion in the red?
02:29Well, we've got a net operating surplus in 29-30.
02:35We have a fiscal surplus in 32-33 and we can achieve our surplus sooner.
02:45We haven't embedded the work of the efficiency and productivity unit in these figures.
02:51We haven't accounted for the fact that we have asset sales on the agenda
02:56and should we divest assets then of course that will improve the bottom line.
03:02But we're doing that work very diligently now and quite sensibly asking the question
03:08are our government business enterprises for example, are they best being maintained in government hands?
03:16And the first trance of the ESLAKE report said well when it comes to TAS Rail
03:21when it comes to TT Line, yes absolutely and that work will continue.
03:25Are the Liberals still disciplined financial managers?
03:30Well yes, we're very disciplined when it comes to ensuring one, we are delivering the services that Tasmanians care about,
03:38getting that balance right, ensuring that cost of living is also a key focus.
03:44So we're putting $550 million to support cost of living measures and concessions.
03:50Tasmanians are still doing it tough as a result of the global and national challenges.
03:56We're not going to abandon Tasmanians in their time of need.
04:00We need to continue to invest in health, invest in cost of living measures,
04:03investing in our schools.
04:05At the same time ensuring that we are very prudently managing our finances,
04:10working through getting at a right size public service which is the work of the EPU
04:16and then sensibly working at which assets that we can divest and which may well be better,
04:23delivering services in private hands.
04:26L Secondly,
04:33As an�� cannot be yourself that is related to that in the comments.
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