A re-elected majority Liberal Government will strengthen Tasmania’s Budget to ensure we can invest more into taking action on issues affecting Tasmanians most.

As part of our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, we will introduce a new law that ensures Governments must use a proportion of future GST windfalls to pay down Labor’s unfunded super liability – that costs Tasmanians more than $350 million a year.

“When Labor was last in Government, they notoriously raided the $1.5 billion Superannuation Provision Account (SPA) to prop up their budget failures,” Premier Jeremy Rockliff said.

The SPA was set up by the Rundle Liberal Government and intended to cover the super costs of former state servants.

“A decade later, Tasmanians are still paying the price for a Labor Government’s appalling budget mismanagement, effectively stealing from future generations to pay for their own mistakes.

“Last year, it cost more than $350 million out of the budget to cover Labor’s superannuation liability and this will only get worse, rising to close to $500 million in 2035 and remaining a burden on our public purse until 2080.

“This is what happens when you give Labor control of the State’s purse strings – they are reckless, irresponsible and it takes decades to fix their mess.

“With strong economic management, we turned around Labor’s recession, their skyrocketing debt and dismal employment record that saw 10,000 people lose their jobs and the unemployment rate approached 8%.

“We had a clear plan to fix the Budget, and we stuck to it. Our economy is now one of the strongest in the country, we have the second lowest debt per capita, and have delivered strong financial management – which put us on the strongest footing to help Tasmania through Covid.

“We invested around $2 billion in keeping Tasmanians safe and in work during Covid, and this was possible due to our strong fiscal management.

“With our strong economic management, we will now put in place a new law that will ensure 50 per cent of any GST windfalls, over and above Treasury's Budget forecasts, go directly into a new legislated mechanism, offsetting the Retirement Benefit Fund’s liabilities. This will effectively reverse Labor’s scrapping of the SPA.

“This will mean we pay less on the cost of servicing Labor’s unfunded super liability, and the funds would be protected from future smash and grabs.

“This is a lot like putting any extra money into an offset account attached to your mortgage – every extra dollar you can chip in means you pay less interest on your loan.

“This is a prudent, responsible and targeted measure that will further improve Tasmania’s budget and ensure we can continue to invest in Tasmanians.

“Only the Liberals can be trusted to handle the State’s Budget.”

Treasurer, Michael Ferguson, said a re-elected majority Liberal Government would also bolster the Retirement Benefits Fund and its capacity to earn money for Tasmanians.

“As part of our strong action, we will also update the legislation that controls the Superannuation Commission, to ensure that it can deliver better bang for buck for our investments.

“We introduced the Public Sector Superannuation Reform Act 2016 and the Public Sector Superannuation Reform Regulations 2017 as we picked up the pieces from Labor’s mess.

“With the significant changes to the local, national and global investment environment, now is the right time for the Superannuation Commission mandate to be updated.

“We are going to ensure the Superannuation Commission is fit-for-purpose, to deliver even more value to Tasmanians.

“This adds to the commitments we gave in our Liberal Fiscal Statement, to improve Tasmania’s Budget position and maintain or improve our credit rating.

“Only a re-elected majority Liberal Government has a Strong Plan to tackle Labor’s superannuation mess, deliver for future generations of Tasmanians, and restore stability and certainty to Tasmania.”