The South Australian Liberal Party's response to the State Budget has been incoherent and contradictory, demanding the government spend more money, while also complaining about debt levels which are lower than forecast when they were in government.
With Liberal Leader David Speirs missing the budget while overseas on holiday, it has been left to Shadow Treasurer Matt Cowdrey and Shadow Finance Minister Heidi Girolamo to try and explain the Liberals' confusing position.
At yesterday's post-budget media conference, Ms Girolamo outlined the Liberals' high-spending 'Magic Pudding' budget plan:
"We wanted to see more for business, more for South Australians and less debt as well."
On ABC Radio this morning, Cowdrey provided an utterly incoherent explanation as to how he would pay for the projects such as the North-South Corridor.
Sonya Feldhoff: "Well how would you pay for them, Matt Cowdrey?"
Cowdrey: "Ah, well, well, that is the, the crux of the question here. In that there is ah, there is well and truly responsibilities and ah, things that drive from the decision of this government to undertake those reviews and to increase the costs of those projects."
Forecast debt for 2023-24 is $3.6 billion less than Liberal Treasurer Rob Lucas forecast for 2023-24 when he was Treasurer in the Marshall Liberal Government.
As put by Stephen Mullighan
It is clear the SA Liberals are in utter disarray with their budget response this week.
First, their leader David Speirs chose to miss the budget to go overseas on holiday.
Then, their Shadow Finance Minister demanded the government spend more money, while also reducing debt.
And finally, their Shadow Treasurer provided a completely incoherent explanation of how the Liberals would pay for infrastructure projects on radio this morning.
If the Liberals say they want to reduce debt, then they owe the people of South Australia a coherent explanation as to how they plan to do it.
