New inflation data today shows the cost of living crisis continues to escalate in Tasmania, with the cost of living rising at the fastest rate since the 1980s.
Consumer Price Index data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows inflation in Hobart is now 8.6 per cent - the highest rate of increase for any state or territory.
Tasmanian wages continue to lag behind the rest of the country, with Jeremy Rockliff now threatening workers to agree to a deal that would see their pay cut by thousands of dollars in real terms.
Tasmanian families are going backwards at an ever-increasing rate, and businesses are facing further operational costs which put at risk livelihoods and services.
Significant contributors to the rise in the CPI were things families can't go without - electricity (29.9 per cent), housing (14.3 per cent), food (8.7 per cent) and transport (14.1 per cent).
Rather than acting on the cost of living, Jeremy Rockliff refuses to even acknowledge the need for control of Tasmania's electricity prices, let alone develop a plan to deal with the forecast increases that would see the average Tasmanian's annual power bill rise by more than $1,000.
This Liberal Government is inept at running Tasmania's economy, blowing a hole in the state budget, creating a housing crisis through nearly a decade of neglect, and refusing to back Labor's plan to cap power prices at 2.5 per cent. Instead Jeremy Rockliff is focusing all his effort on building a $750 million stadium in Hobart.
The government has lost control of the basics of economic management and urgently needs to get its priorities right.
Shane Broad MP
Shadow Treasurer
