Just two days into the Tasmanian election campaign, a money fight has already erupted.
It's become clear that a debate about what taxpayer funds should be spent on, and how the state will afford it, is here to stay.
And while the Liberal Party has already come out swinging over the cost of Labor's energy policies, in a Stateline interview Labor leader Rebecca White positioned it as a battle of priorities.
Cost of living relief, instead of a football stadium on Hobart's waterfront.
Putting in extra money for regional hospitals, ambulance services and funding rent incentives to tackle the key issues of health and housing.
But the question that's going to follow Ms White all election campaign is how she'll pay for it.
She said she'd lead a "responsible government that manages the finances in a way that ensures we can invest in our priorities as a state."
"It's about making sure that we have a budget that prioritises the things that matter to Tasmanians," she said.
That pitch was short on specifics about how she'd balance the books, but took aim at the economic credentials of her opponents.
"This government's had 10 years. In that time, they've taken the budget from a situation where there was no debt to now $6.1 billion of debt," she said.
"That is an extraordinary turnaround in the state's finances. You think about the fact they inherited a book that had cash in reserves, and now they have plundered that and sunk the state's finances.
"They're not good economic managers. My team brings with them experience and their capacity to deliver good budget outcomes that are focused on the right priorities."
Sparks fly as campaign lines drawn
It wouldn't be an election campaign without a power struggle.
Labor has already announced two power policies, the first to wind back recent electricity price increases; saving the average household $400, and then capping price rises at 2.5 per cent per annum going forward.
The second is to protect small and medium businesses from big increases in the wholesale power price.
Under the policy, the business would pay no more than $100 per Megawatt hour, with Hydro Tasmania profits to cover the difference.
Both have already been portrayed as flawed by the Liberal Party.
Liberal Treasury spokesman Michael Ferguson said he estimated reducing the household power bills by $400 would cost $276 million, much more than Labor's $50 million estimate.
And he also says the business rebate would have cost millions of dollars in just one week.
He accused Labor of "not using real money" by relying on Hydro profits, and said Tasmanians couldn't take their policies seriously until they were costed by the Department of Treasury and Finance.
"And Labor are relying, and [energy spokesman] Dean Winter in particular, is relying on his magic money tree, that money can just magically appear," he said.
Labor for their part, have promised to do just that.
"We will be submitting our policies to treasury for costing because the community deserves to understand what a Labor government would deliver for them," Ms White said on Friday.
"I'm very proud of our commitments we've made to date and I would encourage the government to match that."
She's promised to submit them in a "reasonable time frame".
If that happens, it should mean that there will be some independent judgements about promises in advance of polling day.
So Tasmanians can pick which side of the money war they'd like to be on.
Loading...