Federal Budget opinion 2019: Too little, too late for Qld

The Federal Government has been focused on itself rather than Queensland, and it’s now trying to play catch-up, writes Jackie Trad.

The first, and potentially final, Morrison Government Budget last night showed once and for all that the LNP Government cannot be trusted to deliver for Queensland.

Over the past six years Queenslanders have seen Budget after Budget and three consecutive prime ministers from Sydney who have failed to invest in our state’s future.

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Instead of focusing on Queenslanders, they’ve focused on themselves.

What we saw in their Budget last night is more of the same.

They have demonstrated complete inertia on energy policy, when industry and the community is crying out for certainty around how we deal with climate change.

They have failed to fund Cross River Rail, a project that will completely transform transport in our growing southeast corner and deliver thousands of jobs.

They’ve slashed $3 billion from TAFE and skills and cut 150,000 apprenticeship places while our economy needs increasingly diversely skilled workers and some critical sectors are verging on a skills shortage.

They’ve put funding for critical infrastructure way out in the never-never. For some key projects, another two federal elections will come and go before Queenslanders see funding.

The Federal LNP has overseen GST changes that will stop disaster relief payments being excluded, meaning Queensland will lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

And following $8 billion in GST write downs we will see even less revenue flowing to the states to deliver critical services and programs.

If the GST write down isn’t a reflection of a lack of discretionary spending by Australians because of stagnant wage growth, then I don’t know what is.

The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison governments have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the hip pockets of ordinary Australians.

Since our election, the Palaszczuk Government has been focused on ensuring the Queensland economy is fit for the future.

Whether it’s building the infrastructure we need, diversifying our economy to deliver more jobs or investing in the skilling of the next generation, we have made the decisions that need to be made.

It is a Labor Government that is positioning our state to grow, while weathering a changing global economy.

In fact, it is always Labor governments that have led the hard reform that our nation needs.

Bob Hawke and Paul Keating saw the global economy changing and the rapid industrialisation of nations like China and Indonesia on our doorstep, and they argued for the need to reform to make our nation fit for the future — ready to benefit from these changes.  

As a result, we have had 27 years of uninterrupted economic growth.

Do you trust this desperate, divided government to deliver the same?

For the last six years our state has largely been an afterthought for a Federal Government focused on itself.

The spending measures we have seen are too little too late.

They are an election-eve pitch to voters who are quite rightly cynical about this Federal Government’s cuts and chaos.

It is an attempted apology for six years of neglect as they are a strategy to drive the nation forward.

They know they have lost the trust of Australians.

Jackie Trad is Treasurer of Queensland