The Labor party has accused the government of treating state-owned businesses like ATMs in a bid to prop up Tasmania's budget.
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Opposition finance spokesman David O'Byrne said Premier-Treasurer Peter Gutwein was using a dodgy accounting trick to siphon millions of dollars from government business enterprises.
The release of the Revised Estimates Report for 2019-20 earlier this month outlined increased dividends of $14.8 million from Hydro Tasmania and $14 million from TasNetworks would be paid to the government.
An additional $70 million from Hydro Tasmania and $20 million from Sustainable Timbers Tasmania will be paid as special dividends.
But even before these dividends were outlined in the RER, the Hydro Tasmania board raised concerns about the sustainability of the state's dividend policy.
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Last year in its 2019-20 Statement of Corporate Intent, signed by Mr Gutwein and Energy Minister Guy Barnett, Hydro Tasmania said "dividends have been included based on the government's 90 per cent dividend policy. However, this results in forecast debt that in the view of the Hydro Tasmania board may be unsustainable."
Mr O'Byrne said the special dividend demand was a panicked move as the Liberals push the budget into $1.4 billion of debt with no pathway to recovery.
"[Peter Gutwein is] undermining the sustainability of GBEs like Hydro and the ability for it to, not only fund their existing maintenance and infrastructure programs, but to also meet the needs of the Battery of the Nation," Mr O'Byrne said.
"Hydro Tasmania's board stated last year Peter Gutwein's raids are forcing them into unsustainable debt. If the demands on Hydro were unsustainable last year, what are they after the latest cash grab?
"Tasmanians would rightly ask why Hydro has to literally pay the price for the Liberals' poor budget management."
Mr Gutwein said, while the day-to-day management of Hydro Tasmania's financial position was a matter for the board, the fact was Hydro Tasmania was performing well and had a strong financial position.
"As a result, the business has the capacity to pay a once-off special dividend this year, to their owners the people of Tasmania, to be reinvested into essential services such as health," Mr Gutwein said.
A Hydro Tasmania spokesperson said as the company's sole owner the state government had the right to determine the dividend policy for the business.
"This is not the first time a special dividend has been requested," the spokesperson said.