Liberals take aim at White’s ‘porky pies’

LABOR leader Rebecca White had dished up a platter of “porky pies” in her budget response by exaggerating rises in the cost of living, Acting Premier Jeremy Rockliff says.

In her speech on Tuesday, Ms White took aim at the government over what she described as sharp rises in the cost of living due to rising prices for housing, petrol, motor vehicle registration and utilities.

Mr Rockliff said Ms White had misled the parliament.

“Ms White reeled off a series of porky pies in her budget reply speech, including that car rego has ‘skyrocketed’ under us, when the facts are that in 2013 the renewal registration for a four-cylinder car, the most common car type, was $566.16, when now it costs $564.51. That’s lower,” Mr Rockliff said.

“Ms White claimed power prices had skyrocketed under us when, in fact, since the 2014 election, in real terms, prices have decreased by 18.04 per cent for residential customers and have decreased by 27.18 per cent for small business customers.

“Ms White claimed water prices have skyrocketed when they’ve been frozen for the last two years.”

Mr Rockliff said Labor’s claims that mining and families were not mentioned in the budget speech were also incorrect.

Ms White said the Liberals should probably focus more on their own numbers than on what Labor was doing.

“We have had a budget handed down that sees Tasmania racking up $2m a day heading towards $3.5bn in debt over the course of this budget,” she said.

“And what have Tasmanians got to show for that?

“Waiting lists for housing and healthcare that are the worst they’ve ever seen.”