Dan Petrie: Calls for Queensland regions to break away and establish own state grow louder

It’s no surprise that a push for Queensland’s regions to form their own state is building momentum, writes Dan Petrie. VOTE IN OUR POLL

A push is on for Queensland’s northern regions to breakaway and establish their own state.

Should the Queensland regions that have helped propel the most recent state budget to a record $12.3 billion surplus consider breaking away from the southeast corner and establish their own state?

Given the problems the state government has had in tackling youth crime, recruiting in health, and acquiring land for housing, the argument for having decision makers closer to the areas impacted by those challenges surely warrants discussion?

The North Queensland State Alliance has in the last decade been arguing more stridently that very case following 20 years (two boom business cycles) of mining related windfalls which have not flowed back to the areas of origin in dollar-for-dollar terms.

The same alliance has just released its website 7thstate.com.au posing the question of statehood for the north and comes at a time where the money being showered on Brisbane and Gold Coast has ensured that call only grows louder.

North Queensland State Alliance president Peter Raffles. Picture: Evan Morgan

Alliance president, Peter Raffles, told News Corp that the history of Central and Northern Queensland goes back to 1897 and has been stymied for much of the last century.

“Federation as it stands is not working as well as it should and for the people who live in this part of the world, the numbers from economic output through agriculture and resources are clear standouts while the challenges around health for example are not going to be well served by a one-size-fits-all approach out of Brisbane.

“If you take all of the parliaments in Australia (Federal State and Territories) and add up the total representatives excluding those MPs in North Queensland, the ratio of representative to population is approximately 1:29,500.

“In North Queensland (north of the Tropic of Capricorn), the same ratio climbs to 1:44,000.”

Fair point but how do governments overcome this factual problem? For those people living in regional Queensland who travel hours for dialysis along third world roads while paying higher insurance premiums than the rest of the county, can rest easy.

Assuaging those without access to the critical services means the press release quote resembles something along the lines of “sixty-five cents of every infrastructure dollar spent in Queensland is outside the Greater Brisbane area as the XYZ government tackles the challenges operating in the most decentralised state in the federation.”

That made up quote comes from the copy and paste line of every state budget for the last twenty years including the most recent example below from the 2023-24 budget.

“In 2023–24, the government will invest $20.321 billion in capital, directly supporting around 58,000 jobs. $13.308 billion of this capital program will be invested outside of the Greater Brisbane region, supporting around 38,500 jobs.”

That $20 billion? Thank you coal miners.

The $6.3 billion Cross River Rail project. Picture: Brad Fleet

On those Brisbane projects, when challenged on the $7 billion price tag for the Olympics and $6.3 billion for Cross River rail which will deliver some new shiny train stations outside state government office buildings, the reply is to highlight how regional Queensland will benefit.

The logic follows that as soon as visitors to Queensland are done attending the Olympics and experiencing the majestic lights of…..Brisbane, that same visitor will spend two weeks at Qualia on Hamilton Island with an economic benefit worth billions to the state economy.

Load up on the paracetamol my friends, your head will hurt as the spend in the lead up to a two-week sporting carnival will unleash the phrase, “multiplier effect” ad nauseam, the benefits of which will flow throughout the economy along with modelling provided by a sandstone university economics paper.

(The university at St Lucia and its economics department’s advocacy for demand-side solutions for everything mean Brisbane based capital works are somehow good for people living in Rockhampton).

However, at its core, the big problem is that there is a significant population that lives a long way from where its elected representatives meet.

When parliament convened in Cairns recently, the taxpayer was on the hook for a million dollars but seven figures is the new petty cash for government expenditure nowadays.

Townsville at 1353km, Cairns at 1699km and Mackay, a hop, skip and jump at 971.3 km are all further away from Brisbane than Sydney at 909km.

A population north of Gladstone that is almost double Tasmania and likely to surpass Federal Government funding-favourite Adelaide in the next two decades should have representation that is more accessible than the capital in the south.