Community and business leaders respond to Budget

THE state’s business, union and communtiy organisation leaders deliver their verdicts on the State Budget.

Treasurer Peter Gutwein and Premier Will Hodgman. Picture: Adam Reilbel

THE state’s business, union and communtiy organisation leaders deliver their verdicts on the State Budget.

MORE BUDGET:

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BUDGET ‘TICKS ALL THE BOXES’, SAYS GUTWEIN

ANALYSIS: GUTWEIN SURFS THE WAVE OF PROSPERITY

WHAT THEY SAID

Jessica Munday.

Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday

“If you’re a worker in Tasmania and you’re looking at the budget and you’re asking yourself how is it going to make it easier for me to live here, how are my wages going to look, you’re not going to feel very positive about it.

“The community and workers have rejected trickle-down economics because they know it doesn’t work and this is a budget that is full of corporate welfare and tax handouts.”

Tom Lynch.

Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Tom Lynch

“I think Tasmanians who are now earning $213.40 less than other Australians will be very disappointed that there is nothing in this budget to address that wage gap.

“Parks and Wildlife has received 15 rangers in this budget and they need three times that just to begin to deal with the issues they are facing.”

Emily Shepherd.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian branch secretary Emily Shepherd

“We welcome the 76 additional inpatient beds, including a commitment to additional mental health beds.

“In this financial year and forward estimates, the government are predicting surpluses yet their commitment to wages remains at 2 per cent for public sector nurses and midwives and that is of great concern.”

Helen Richardson.

Australian Education Union Tasmania president Helen Richardson

“We welcome the additional teachers that will be in our classrooms in 2019 — that’s 60 extra teachers.

“What is disappointing is this budget does not address the critical need of more professional support staff — that’s our school psychologists, social workers and our speech and language therapists.

“We have kids coming to school every day with high and complex needs and we need to have more of these services available to our students.

“With the budget with a 2 per cent wages policy that will mean Tasmanian teachers are the lowest paid in the nation.

“Our Tasmanian kids deserve to be taught by the best and brightest so we need to pay our teachers fairly.

“We welcome the announcement of the state government’s commitment to improving TasTAFE governance and extra funding for TasTAFE as recognition that they are centres of excellence.”

Malcolm Elliott.

Tasmanian Principals Association president Malcolm Elliott

“The budget represents 2.2 per cent increase in the school sector, 8.4 per cent overall so that’s a significant increase in education.

“Tasmania’s schools, many of which were built a long time ago, need to be refurbished and there is of course money now for some new schools at Legana and Brighton.”

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania CEO Luke Martin

“This budget is unprecedented and extraordinary in terms of investment in infrastructure, tourist roads and national parks.

“It is a sign of how things have changed in Tasmania and tourism’s now major economic role.”

Luke Martin.

Property Council of Australia Tasmanian executive director Brian Wightman

“The surplus is important and the level of confidence will encourage investment and development to do the heavy lifting and hopefully address housing stress.

“But the planning scheme needs to be finalised.”

National Disability Services state manager Will Kestin

“There are a few shortfalls in the Budget. The $20 million for housing over the next three years is not enough, particularly with people with disabilities joining the queue.”

Shelter Tasmania executive officer Pattie Chugg

“We were very pleased to see the $25 million bought forward and the $125 million on the affordable housing strategy over the next four years. But we would have liked to have a nice surprise and see some new initiatives in the funding — we’d like to see more money brought forward.”

Robert Mallett.

Tasmanian Small Business Council executive officer Robert Mallett

“I think that the government has fulfilled its promises to the small business sector by fulfilling all its election promises. With the infrastructure spend the way it is now heralds a new dawn in the Tasmanian economy. I think it’s going to be a magic couple of decades.”

Kym Goodes.

TasCOSS CEO Kym Goodes

“We are pleased to see the continued commitment to low income Tasmanians and those doing it really tough. So the government has fulfilled its commitments in terms of affordable housing, the child protection redesign and brought forward some new money into family violence so we are really happy to see those commitments fulfilled. We’re also pleased to see the commitment continue in terms of low income Tasmanians been supported in a range of cost of living strategies.

“We think this is a budget where we could have turned a corner and started to rebalance Tasmania in terms of investing more in universal services and in preventive services. So this budget sees a huge amount of money go into hospitals for example but the lowest ever investment that we’ve seen in preventive health.”

Tim Jacobson.

HACSU state secretary Tim Jacobson

“There lots of money on infrastructure right across particularly the public health system. Obviously we’re disappointed in the government’s wages policy. We’re going to see more jobs over the next three to four years come into health but obviously from our perspective it’s a real concern that we’re not going to have wages that are going to keep pace with inflation over the years, particularly where we need to recruit specialist staff into the future.