How the LNP government budget sells a ‘fresh start’ after five years of Dick

The LNP wants you to know its first Queensland budget since 2014 will give the state a “fresh start”. Treasurer David Janetzki used the phrase seven times as he announced debt would be crunched and public servant numbers capped.

But while Janetzki has outlined a “pathway to surplus”, the budget would remain in deficit for each of the next four years.

Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki in the budget lock-up.Credit: Jamila Filippone

“When the people of Queensland changed the government last October, they voted for a fresh start,” Janetzki said, delivering his first budget on Tuesday.

“This budget lays the foundation for a fresh start.”

The government would cap non-frontline senior executive public servant numbers at present levels until 2028, with the hiring freeze saving $18 million over four years.

On cost of living, an annual $100 back-to-school voucher would help students at state, independent and Catholic primary schools pay for excursions, schoolbooks and uniforms, costing $188.6 million over four years.

A $165 million Boost to Buy program would reduce the deposit gap for up to 1000 first-home buyers.

First-home buyers would be able to purchase with as low as a 2 per cent deposit, with the state government investing up to 30 per cent equity for new builds and 25 per cent of existing homes, up to a $1 million home.

Budget papers reveal Brisbane median dwelling prices have reached $918,000.

Janetzki rejected suggestions it could drive up the cost of housing.

“I don’t accept that it won’t get more people into homes,” he said.

The electricity rebate for more than 600,000 vulnerable households would be indexed, delivering an average power bill saving of $386, up from $372.

There would be $347.7 million for the Making Queensland Safer laws and $24.3 billion for hospital and health services, including 4500 extra health workers in 2025-26.

Funding of $41.7 billion was allocated for road and transport infrastructure, including the Bruce Highway and $5.5 billion for stage one of The Wave public transit plan for the Sunshine Coast, but no funding yet for stages two or three, as contracts have not been awarded.

There would be $831.9 million for the first five Olympic Games venues and Premier David Crisafulli said he remained “very optimistic” the federal government would agree to an amended funding deal.

Total debt would reach $190.4 billion by 2027-28 and $205.7 billion by 2028-29, and Janetzki said he was meeting the promise “that debt would be lower under a Crisafulli government”.

The MYFER budget update, delivered in January by the LNP government, estimated total debt would hit $217.8 billion by 2027-28.

But the former Labor government, in its final budget in June 2024, had pegged the total debt figure lower, at $172 billion by 2027-28.

“Interest costs across the forwards are now forecast to be $2.3 billion lower than they would have been under Labor, which leaves more to be paid to our frontline workers rather than our lenders,” Janetzki said.

Crisafulli said Labor’s budget had “fanciful numbers that were baked in”.

The LNP turned Labor’s $515 million projected deficit in 2025-26, according to Labor’s final budget, into $8.6 billion, with an expected $1.1 billion deficit in 2028-29.

“We lay that foundation for the budget repair,” the treasurer said.

Revenue was expected to be $91 billion in 2025-26, $2.6 billion higher than anticipated in Labor’s last budget, delivered a year ago.

General government sector spending would be more than $10 billion higher in 2025-26, at almost $100 billion, than anticipated under Labor.

That came as the government suffered under a more challenging revenue environment, Janetzki said, including a $2.3 billion cut to GST revenue in 2025-26 and a $5 billion drop in coal royalty in 2024-25 compared with the previous year.

The budget did not include new or increased taxes.

“[Former Labor treasurer] Cameron Dick collected more in coal royalties in two years than I’ll collect in four,” Janetzki said.

“The former government absolutely creamed the coal royalties.”

Payroll tax would remain the biggest revenue stream for the government, with more than $7 billion expected over the next year, and it would reap more than $2 billion in gambling taxes and levies.

A new Queensland Government Consulting Services would be set up as a business unit of Queensland Treasury Corporation from July 1, designed to offer advice at lower rates than the private sector, at a cost of $15 million over two years.

One of Janetzki’s new fiscal principles would be to stabilise the debt of government-owned corporations alongside government sector debt to give a “full picture” of state debt.

The government would take $3 billion from the public sector’s defined benefit scheme and put it into the debt retirement fund, to pay down debt.

Natural disasters and protectionist global trade policies in the US have weighed on Queensland’s growth, and would reduce gross state product by about three-quarters of a percentage point in 2024-25, budget papers revealed.

Unemployment was forecast to remain lower for longer, but would edge up from 4 per cent in 2024-25 to 4.75 per cent in 2028-29.

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