Housing and dumped hydro details in LNP’s election-focused budget reply

The news

Queensland’s state LNP opposition would roll out new plans and supports for small business, launch a regulatory review of the building sector, and enact new laws to ensure “no special treatment” for renewable energy projects if elected in October.

“[The election] is a choice between the LNP with the right plan for Queensland’s future, or a decaying Labor Party which thinks doing what matters means running a mile from its record,” LNP leader David Crisafulli told parliament.Credit: Queensland Parliament

New details of the party’s platform, revealed by leader David Crisafulli in his 54-minute budget reply speech on Thursday, came after overnight details of efforts to boost housing supply and first-home ownership, and dump the government’s landmark Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project.

Why it matters

With fewer than five months to the state election, poor polls for Labor and little detailed LNP policy to-date, Crisafulli’s speech has been much hyped by both his party and the government.

Criticisms of Crisafulli’s “small target” approach escalated last week when he pledged to adopt most of Labor’s budget before its release – with a now-confirmed exception for Pioneer-Burdekin.

Despite announcing new spending measures and criticising government debt levels, neither Crisafulli – nor his treasury spokesperson, David Janetzki – revealed any detail of their foreshadowed debt or broader tax reduction plans and held no planned media conference.

What they said

“[The election] is a choice between the LNP with the right plan for Queensland’s future, or a decaying Labor Party which thinks doing what matters means running a mile from its record,” Crisafulli told parliament.

(A nod to Treasurer Cameron Dick’s budget speech line that the election was about voters’ choice about their future, “not to express an opinion about the past”.)

“In October, there is only one question for Queenslanders to answer. It is the question that matters. After 10 years of this Labor government, have the crises in housing, cost of living, health and youth crime got better or worse, and who has the right plan for Queensland’s future?”

More new details of the LNP’s plan include regional infrastructure plans to set out future investments and a reformed Productivity Commission’s first task: “a regulatory review of the building industry”.

Crisafulli said the government would also set up a procurement policy to “ensure that local small and family businesses are prioritised for local tenders” and pathway to engage directly with them on “short-term contracts of up to $1 million for the purpose of proof-of-concept or outcomes-based trials”.

“In the lead-up to the election, the LNP will continue to roll out plans to address the crises impacting Queenslanders.”

Perspectives

Labor has already seized on the announcements, with Premier Steven Miles touting federal Labor’s shared-equity scheme expected to help “around 8000 Queenslanders” and opposed by the Greens and federal Coalition – including some LNP members.

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni told parliament there was “not another site like Pioneer-Burdekin”.

Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh welcomed the LNP’s housing policy as a “bipartisan” response to the housing crunch, urged both parties to do more for renters, and hoped to see more LNP cost-of-living relief.

Q Shelter chief executive Fiona Caniglia also welcomed the LNP’s support of Labor’s earlier housing target and an expanded shared-equity scheme, but warned exempting new homes from stamp duty could give people incentives to move to “poorly serviced areas” with higher travel costs.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland and Property Council of Australia also welcomed the plan.

By the numbers

• 1 million: The number of new homes the LNP has pledged to deliver by 2044 under its Securing Our Housing Foundations plan – echoing Labor’s own 2046 commitment and including 53,500 social or community housing homes.
• 1000: The number of Queenslanders the LNP’s proposal to “close the deposit gap” on first home purchases through a state shared-equity scheme would be initially available to.