Qld business confidence at lowest point in six years: YouGov poll

Queensland’s business confidence is at its lowest ebb in six years, and experts have pointed to why the state is struggling.

CONFIDENCE in Queensland’s outlook is at its lowest point in at least six years, with almost half of people surveyed saying the state is headed in the wrong direction.

The August Courier-Mail/YouGov Galaxy poll, published in today’s Queensland Business Monthly, revealed just 34 per cent of people thought the state was on the right trajectory.

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Almost half, 47 per cent, think the state is headed in the wrong direction.

Two of the state’s top industry bodies say the low level of confidence is not surprising.

Master Builders Queensland deputy CEO Paul Bidwell, who represents more than 8500 members in the state’s third-largest industry, said people were struggling.

“The housing sector and commercial builders are doing it very tough across the state... with no real end in sight,” he said.

“We would normally rely on state government to help out with that on capital expenditure.

“The government’s imposed a lot of new regulation on our sector that’s’ just proving challenging

“It’s just this view that we’re being beaten around the ears.”

Mr Bidwell said a lack of investment in minor infrastructure was hurting the state’s building industry.

“You’ve got big projects which are billions of dollars, but a lot of that is going into civil and engineering constructions as opposed to public buildings,” Mr Bidwell said.

“Public buildings are the courthouses, the hospitals and the schools.

“It’s not fair to say there’s no spending, but it’s just not enough.”

CCIQ spokesman Daniel Petrie said low private-sector investment and hiring intentions were crippling the Queensland economy.

“The level of private sector investment, busienss waning to build, is at one of the worst levels it’s been at in the last 20 years,” he said.

Mr Petrie said compliance burdens, green and red tape, were holding the state back.

“The magical ingredient which made Queensland such a great state to invest in, was that it was a low-tax state,” he said.

“How do we get back to being a place people want to invest in?”

Mr Petrie said the blame could be laid at all three levels of government, which needed to work together to grow investment.