State Budget 2019: ‘Where have they spent this money?’ asks Labor

The biggest legacy of the 2019 State Budget will be a staggering level of debt in four years time, Labor says.

Opposition Leader Rebecca White wants to know where the money has gone after the State Budget revealed a return to net debt.

THE biggest legacy of the State Budget handed down by Peter Gutwein will be a staggering level of debt in four years time, Labor leader Rebecca White says.

The Opposition Leader said the $450 million being sought in efficiency dividends over the forward estimates and the return to debt were the biggest failings in the Budget. Net debt rises to $1.1 billion over the forward estimates in the Budget documents.

“Will Hodgman and Peter Gutwein have plunged the state into over a billion dollars worth of debt,” Ms White said.

“They’ve got $450 million worth of cuts to agencies, health, education and other services that they can’t explain.

“Housing affordability is making people’s lives a misery and they’ve plunged the Budget into a billion dollars worth of debt. Where have they spent this money?”

MORE STATE BUDGET NEWS:

BUDGET 2019: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

‘NO HELP IN SIGHT’ IN BUDGET, SAY UNIONS

AT A GLANCE: QUICK GUIDE TO THE NUMBERS

HEALTH: WHAT GOVERNMENT IS DOING ABOUT THE RHH

ANALYSIS: DRESSING UP THE ORDINARY

EDUCATION: EARLY LEARNING A WINNER

BUILDING: FAST-TRACK PLAN FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Labor’s Treasury spokesman Scott Bacon said the Liberals were ignoring the major issues facing the state.

Labor’s Treasury spokesman Scott Bacon. Picture: PATRICK GEE

“This is a government that is not taking the health crisis seriously. It’s not taking the issues in our housing system seriously,” Mr Bacon said.

“What we’ve got is a government that has squandered the good economic times and is going to put us back into net debt for the first time for 15 years. It was 15 years ago that Labor repaid the last Liberal Government’s debt and now we’ve got Peter Gutwein taking us back there in what he calls a ‘golden age’.”

Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor said the budget represented a missed opportunity and that it showed a deficit in vision and compassion.

Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor called it a “dishonest” budget.

“It is one of the most dishonest state budgets I’ve ever seen,” Ms O’Connor said.

“It allocates $1.5 billion over the forward estimates for roads and less than $200 million for new social and affordable housing. It’s all very well to build roads and bridges but you can’t ignore the people who right now, because of the homelessness crisis, are sleeping under those bridges.”

Ms O’Connor said it also cut funding to climate action, threatened species and for bushfire preparedness, describing it as a “climate change denier’s budget”.