Labor in call for Tassie projects

THE Federal Government needs to bring forward projects such as building a new Bridgewater Bridge and upgrading the Hobart to Sorell corridor as part of a stimulus program to safeguard the economy from global risks, Labor says.

In his speech to the party faithful at the Tasmanian Labor Party conference in Burnie today, Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers will call on Canberra to bring infrastructure spending forward — as former prime minister Kevin Rudd did in the face of the global financial crisis — to provide an immediate kickstart to the economy.

Dr Chalmers is the keynote speaker at the conference. Labor leader Anthony Albanese is in Asia and will not be attending.

“Today I am calling on Josh Frydenberg to bring forward the release of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook,” Dr Chalmers will tell the conference.

“An earlier budget update would give the Government a circuit-breaking opportunity to come up with the economic plan which has been so conspicuously absent so far.”

Dr Chalmers says the Government’s claim that it is a good economic manager is farcical.

“The Liberals claiming to be good at economic management is a bit like Gordon Ramsay claiming he is good at anger management,” he says.

“An earlier MYEFO would provide the Government with the opportunity to properly outline an economic program that supports the floundering economy and better safeguards it from global risks.”

An upgrade of the Bass Highway is another project Dr Chalmers says could be brought forward.

Labor also wants the Government to bring forward part of the income tax package to give further relief to middle income earners and to review and responsibly increase Newstart to provide millions of dollars in extra retail sales and increased GST revenue.

He is also calling on the Government to boost wages and immediately restore penalty rates.

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Johnathon Duniam said unless Dr Chalmers was attending the conference to announce Labor was ditching its $387 billion in higher taxes, he may as well “follow the leader and not attend at all.”

“It’s the height of arrogance and ignorance for Dr Chalmers to show up at the ALP conference in Burnie, where his high tax agenda will hurt thousands of people in the surrounding electorate of Braddon,” Senator Duniam said.