Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Treasurer

Thursday 4th February 2010

Aird fails basic test of honesty

Michael Aird has proven that he will say one thing and do another.

In December last year he said that his monumental stuff up when he tried to sell TOTE during the middle of an economic downturn would not impact on the budget bottom line.

That was untrue as he was forced to reveal that the aborted TOTE sale had already cost Tasmanians more than $3 million in fees.

Now we find out that Tasmanians will fork out to provide loans to pay for Labor promises.

The Treasurer just can’t be trusted when it comes to managing the economy or being upfront with Tasmanians.

The TOTE debacle is just one of his growing list of major failures, including his attempts to introduce an ambulance tax, his disastrous water and sewerage charges and the Land Tax fiasco.

The Treasurer needs to immediately rule out borrowing any more money to pay for election promises. Although I doubt he can, given that Labor’s promises are quickly approaching an horrific $500 million and it appears that the Treasurer has already hit the bottom of the pork barrel and is desperately looking for more cash to burn.