Fast track to bankruptcy?

If you own a home, you understand a mortgage. You take on debt, knowing that after years of chipping away, you’ll own the roof over your head. It’s tough, but at the end of the road, you own something.

Now, imagine this nightmare:

You borrow a fortune, pile on eye-watering debt… but after decades, not only do you own nothing, you’ve sold half the house just trying to pay the interest.

That’s precisely where Tasmania is headed.

Our state’s debt is exploding. Treasury warns of $13 billion by 2027-28, with deficits stretching as far as the eye can see. But what are we getting for it? A shiny new hospital? A genuine housing plan? An energy future we truly own?

Nope.

We’re piling up IOUs while our government flogs off assets and services just to stay afloat. This isn’t a strategic investment; it’s debt we can’t service, tied to nothing that builds us up. No equity. No return. No endgame.

It’s not a mortgage. It’s a slow-motion asset fire sale.

the state that fails?

This week, The Mandarin posed a blunt question: Is Tasmania a failed state?

Harsh? Perhaps. Unfair? Sadly, no.

We’re facing:

• Crumbling hospitals and an underfunded health system.
• Schools stretched thin.
• A housing crisis no one seems to fix.
• Gutted public services.
• And soon, a mountain of debt with no way to pay it back except with… even more cuts.

While major parties squabble over stadiums and slogans, NOBODY is presenting a credible plan to grow the pie, protect our remaining assets, and dig us out of this financial sinkhole.

elite cartels: The real power behind the curtain

I’ve written before about Tasmania’s Elite Cartels — the same old insiders who operate this island like their personal estate: business leaders, industry groups, lobbyists, well-connected consultants. They thrive, no matter who’s in power.

They don’t care if the budget is cooked; they’ve already got the contracts, the influence, the seat at the table. Meanwhile, the public gets the scraps.

Debt goes up, services go down, and the Cartel still cashes in. This isn’t a state government, it’s a managed decline overseen by insiders.

canberra, takeover, and the only path out

The Mandarin even floated an idea some Tasmanians (including me) mutter after the second beer: Should Canberra just take over?

On paper, federal intervention might offer financial discipline and resources we lack. But even if the Commonwealth stepped in, they’d confront the same local elites, the same power structures that keep us trapped.

And who’s not offering a path out of this?

Labor. Liberals. Even the Greens haven’t mapped a route off this debt cliff. Their policies tinker at the edges, or worse, promise the impossible without the funding to match. No courage to challenge the Cartels. No vision to build something sustainable.

We desperately need:

• Revenue reform.
• A smarter state budget.
• A break from the business-as-usual deals that see the public pay while the connected few profit.

And we need voters willing to send INDEPENDENTS who will ask the questions the majors won’t touch.

Because the alternative?

We’ll just keep servicing a debt we can’t afford — and watch the last pieces of our house get sold off.