‘One year of pork, three years of pain’

A DAY after the state budget was handed down, new Shadow Treasurer Shane Broad has pounced on the government’s health spending, criticising the Premier for what he claims is an unsustainable cash splash.

On Friday, Mr Broad said the health spending was being bumped up one year and dropped the next.

“You’ve got to put health on a sustainable footing,” Mr Broad said.

“The extra funding in this year’s budget is welcome, but what’s not welcome is the drop-off for next year.

“What we see the Premier doing is this same old strategy he’s been doing for years: one year of pork, three years of pain.”

He said the funding “dropoff” would leave hospitals struggling to recruit staff.

“How is it you’re going to be able to attract doctors and nurses, orderlies and cleaners and the people we need to open the beds when next year there’s going to be less money?” Mr Broad said.

Premier Peter Gutwein said the government was already working to be able to recruit more hospital staff.

“This is a challenging space at the moment,” Mr Gutwein said. “Unfortunately across the country there is not a workforce available you can recruit from at the moment because they are up to their neck in Covid.

“We’ve established a health recruitment taskforce to work through that challenging situation. But what we are seeing is programs being run in Tasmania to ensure we can train more nurses.”

The Greens also stuck to their core issues, claiming more was needed to mitigate climate change.

“They’ve moved the climate office into Treasury, they’re treating it as the management of the safe climate, management of community responses, as an asset on the ledger,” Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said. “We have to get real about the climate crisis.”

But the Premier said Tasmania was in good stead when it came to climate change and the creation of its new body, Renewables, Climate and Future Industries Tasmania, was proof it was taking action.

“In this budget, this is the first time a premier of any persuasion in this state has established a unit specifically targeting renewables, climate and future industries,” Mr Gutwein said. “Tasmania has an extraordinarily good story to tell on climate.”

Labor will hand down its alternative budget on Tuesday, and the Greens will reveal their costings on Wednesday.