WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY AMENDMENT (SAFER WORKPLACES) BILL 2024

Legislative Council, Tuesday 10 September 2024 Ms FORREST (Murchison) – Mr President, I will try not to repeat anything I have already said in relation to the previous debate. I want to say at the outset that I support the introduction of this legislation for a number of reasons. One particularly is that some of […]

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The Montello Primary School community feel “disrespected and unheard”

“The Montello Primary School community feel “disrespected and unheard” following school funding announced in the state budget. While the government committed a further $2.5 million, taking the overall state funding to $9.6 million, Ms Forrest said it “always was underfunded and inadequate”. You can read the rest of my comments relating to the funding allocation […]

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MOTION Validation (State Coastal Policy) Bill 2024 (No. 37) – Consideration by Government Administration Committee B

Legislative Council, Wednesday 18 September 2024 Ms O’CONNOR (Hobart)(by leave) – Mr President, I move – That the Validation State Coastal Policy Bill 2024 be referred to Government Administration Committee B for consideration and report. Ms FORREST (Murchison) – Mr President, I have come down here so I can eyeball the minister when necessary. The […]

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Adjournment Speech – Road Damage in Northern Tasmania

Legislative Council, Thursday 12 September  Ms FORREST (Murchison) – Mr President, I rise on adjournment to raise an urgent matter and to make a bit of a complaint and ask the government what response they are going to provide. Members will be aware that the north west of the state, many in the north and […]

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Superannuation – Measures and Data

Legislative Council, Wednesday 18 September 2024 Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT Referring to the Budget for 2024-25, could you provide measures/details of: (1) Tasmania’s Gross State Product; (2) The service cost for current employees of the General Government who are members of the defined benefit superannuation schemes; […]

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We need to face what the budget figures have been trying to tell us for years, and it’s not good news

Time to be honest about the challenges and work together, before it’s too late. The 2024-25 Tasmanian state budget is a catastrophe. There is no plan to stop debt servicing costs eating up more and more of revenue each year. By 2027-28 almost 10c in every dollar of revenue will be devoted to debt servicing. […]

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The gravity of our state’s challenges means we need to start thinking very differently

Political parties continue their misinformation campaigns rather than honestly discussing our financial problems, writes Ruth Forrest The gravity of the state’s perilous fiscal position, as forensically detailed by Saul Eslake in his recent report, was rather predictably matched by the dismissiveness by major parties of the recommendation to raise more revenue from our own sources. […]

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Servicing our past sins is costing more, which takes away much-needed funding from current services

Denial of budget reality is no longer an option for Tasmania. The government last week released the Preliminary Outcome Report for the 2023-24 year, revealing the latest on the state’s finances. On Monday of this week, leading economist Saul Eslake released his long anticipated review into the same subject. First the good news on the […]

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