Worldwide Import-Export Information & Resources

Tasmania’s peak employer body, the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has updated its State Election Spendometer with new features including the Tasmanian Greens policy costs and itemised expenditure for all parties.

Robert Wallace, TCCI Chief Executive, said the TCCI has been overwhelmed with public requests to include all three parties.

“The Greens have provided some information which was incomplete and does not yet include any savings. We have supplemented these figures with our own estimates that can be revised once new information is provided to us.

“The update shows that while all three parties are overspending, the Greens now occupy top spot,” Mr Wallace said.

Mr Wallace said that the Spendometer was designed to draw focus to the net cost of election commitments and their potential to negatively impact the bottom line.

“It is important that the public gain a better understanding of how election promises will affect the longer-term sustainability of the Budget.

“This is why we provide a breakdown of recurrent and capital expenditure. Recurrent expenditure relates to the day-to-day expenditure of the Government and includes wages and other operating expenses.

“The primary focus of our campaign is to reign in recurrent expenditure. This is different from one-off capital expenses on infrastructure,” Mr Wallace said.

Mr Wallace said that the TCCI was aware of the highly political environment that the Spendometer was operating in but that it was important that the public was able to access independent and comparable data.

“The Spendometer is a public good for the benefit of the Tasmanian community and is the only available resource of its kind.

“Regardless of any political interference, we will continue the Spendometer in accordance with the rules we have set right up until polling day,” Mr Wallace said.

Source: http://www.tcci.com.au/upfiles/tcci/cont/pdfs/press_release/100305_tcci_election_spendometer_update_including_greens_estimate.pdf