A brighter future?

Will Hodgman’s Plan for a Brighter Future, includes even shonkier savings than was included in last year’s Roadmap to Recovery.

Savings from tearing up the Forestry Deal of $34.8 million over 4 years were included but the revenue from the Feds was still retained.

Not only that, the $34.8 million  figure  chosen by Will as a saving is the incorrect figure because it represented only the proposed increases , the policy adjustments, in this year's Budget Papers, increases over and above what had been provided for in last year's budget. The $34.8 million figure is from the Policy and Parameters Statement in the Budget Papers setting out the differences to revenues and expense items as a result of policy changes (deliberate decisions by Government) and parameter changes (changes in demand say, or timing differences). These amount are not the proposed outlays, simply the additional outlays compared to last year's Budget.

Do these guys know what they’re doing?

Again halving the contingency known as the Treasurer’s Reserve by $40 million was booked as a bottom line improvement. If it was a contingency, an amount appropriated just in case, it wouldn't be in the budgeted P&L?

Halving it therefore wouldn't improve the bottom line.

Forestry Tasmania couldn’t possibly survive without the planned injection of $95 million. It is needed to pay wages and superannuation which costs $25 million pa. Forestry Tasmania hasn’t produced operating cash flow surpluses for years, since well before the TFA process started.

Mr Hodgman’s Plan is a hoax.

Make the above adjustments and the bottom line is little different from the Government’s Budget.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee?