Question Time: Detail missing from budget, Greens and Labor say

Labor and the Greens say there are certain details missing from the state budget. Here’s what was said during Question Time.

Labor member for Clark Ella Haddad, parliament Question Time. Picture: Chris Kidd

For the latest political news, straight from Tasmanian parliament, check out the Mercury’s live Question Time blog.

State of the Environment Report finally tabled

The long-delayed State of the Environment Report has finally been tabled in parliament.

It details baseline environmental data, trends, and risks across the state.

An updated report has not been released since 2009, despite legislative requirements dictating a new document be produced every five years.

The Tasmanian Planning Commission was due to hand the report to Planning Minister Felix Ellis by June 30 this year but asked for an extension until the end of August in order to “undertake quality assurance processes and finalise the report”.

The report makes 16 recommendations and identifies “significant” environmental challenges facing the state into the future.

“It is the Commission’s view that investment in the management of Tasmania’s environment and the implementation of these recommendations must be considered on a scale that is equal to the scale of the current and emerging environmental challenges,” it says.

Labor will deliver budget reply

Labor leader Dean Winter will today deliver his budget reply speech, in which he is expected to further detail his proposal to ban pork barrelling at election time.

Labor leader Dean Winter. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Mr Winter has accused the government of recklessly running up state debt and disregarding the advice of independent economist Saul Eslake, who produced a damning report into the state of Tasmania’s finances.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff has called Labor’s plan to end pork barrelling “a load of bull crap” and says it will hand over election funding commitments to “unelected bureaucrats” and put “uncertainty and fear in the minds of community organisations”.

Palliative Care Tasmania funding questioned

Health Minister Guy Barnett has been unable to confirm whether Palliative Care Tasmania will receive a funding extension beyond June 30 next year.

Greens health spokeswoman Cecily Rosol said the state budget made no mention of a funding extension for the organisation “yet your government has chosen to allocate up to $12m to a chocolate fountain”.

“Is there funding for Palliative Care Tasmania in this year’s budget and, if so, where can it be found?” she said.

Mr Barnett said the government had a “very good cooperative and collaborative relationship with Palliative Care Tasmania”.

Minister Guy Barnett. House of Assembly question time returns in the Tasmanian parliament after the Winter break. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“We take it very seriously and, of course, we will absolutely consider any requests and submissions made in the normal process that goes through a budget process, as colleagues in this chamber know,” he said.

“But I just want to put on the record again my thanks for their advocacy, their work, and their support. And we take it very seriously, and I thank them for it.”

$120m for Northern Heart Centre “nowhere to be seen”

Labor health spokeswoman Ella Haddad says the $120m promised for a new Northern Heart Centre is “nowhere to be seen” in the state budget and that the Liberals are now asking for federal support for the project.

“Premier you have said yourself that the statistics around heart disease in Tasmania are devastating?” she said.

“What happened to leading a government with heart?”

Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the centre would be delivered “as committed” and that planning for the project was under way.

Questions around Weiss review

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff has questioned why the 2024-25 state budget doesn’t contain a timeline for the Liberal government’s implementation of recommendations from Regina Weiss’s review into the late pedophile police officer Paul Reynolds.

Reynolds, who died in 2018 and was controversially given a full police funeral, was found by Ms Weiss to have groomed potentially more than 52 young boys over the course of his three-decade career with Tasmania Police.

Ms Weiss’s review made five recommendations, all of which were accepted by the government and Tasmania Police.

“How can you say you accept the recommendations when you’re doing nothing to implement them?” Dr Woodruff said.

Mr Rockliff committed to tabling an implementation timeline in the parliament.

“We have committed to the recommendations from Ms Weiss. We will deliver on those recommendations,” he said.

Originally published as Question Time: Detail missing from budget, Greens and Labor say