Opinion: $14b surplus but Queenslanders can’t make ends meet

There is more than enough money for every one of us to have a home, fresh food, medicine, a reliable way to get to work, and to pay our bills, writes Aimee McVeigh.

Last year the Queensland government delivered a $14 billion surplus, the highest of any state or territory ever.

That is more than enough money for every one of us to have a home, fresh food, medicine, a reliable way to get to work, and to pay our bills. But, as our state gets richer, too many Queenslanders are going backwards, facing the distressing reality that they can no longer afford the basics.

That’s why the Queensland Council of Social Service is delighted to co-host the first leaders’ head-to-head in this crucial election year.

Queenslanders bearing the brunt of the current cost of living crisis deserve answers – now. They urgently need leaders who not only acknowledge the challenges they face every day but have practical plans to tackle them.

If you are putting your children to bed in a tent tonight, or wondering whether your pension will stretch to cover food as well as the rent as well as your skyrocketing energy bills, it’s not good enough to be told by the respective political parties that you can wait until an election campaign in October to hear what they plan to do to fix these problems.

Even those who have not reached crisis point recognise the situation is urgent. In research conducted for QCOSS last November, 50 per cent of people surveyed named cost of living as the issue they were most concerned about. That translates to about 2.3 million Queenslanders.

They rightly recognise that when 300,000 of their fellow Queenslanders are experiencing insecure housing, we as a community are not living up to our national ethos of being the land of the fair go.

Every family modelled in the report is paying more than 30 per cent of their weekly expenditure in rent, and in most cases up to 40 per cent.

Parents with children, particularly single mums with children, are going into over 200 dollars in debt weekly. This makes living impossible, and it’s women and children who are suffering most.

Last month, QCOSS welcomed Premier Steven Miles’s release of his government’s Homes for Queenslanders plan as a promising first step. Now it’s time for the Opposition to reveal its plans.

It’s not good enough for David Crisafulli to sit back and criticise what the current Labor government is doing. Tuesday’s leaders’ head-to-head is an ideal opportunity to tell Queenslanders how a prospective LNP government would ease pressures on families and share this state’s great prosperity more fairly.

Both leaders would be well advised to come prepared for some tough questions from Courier-Mail readers and QCOSS members, some of whom will be attending the debate in person. Our members in the social service spend every day on the front lines of this cost-of-living crisis; they know how urgent the situation is because they have seen the desperation in the eyes of Queenslanders, many of whom have been forced to ask for help for the first time in their lives.

We know no State Government can single-handedly stop prices rising by waving a magic wand. But there are plenty of relatively small initiatives that could make a big difference in the lives of struggling Queensland families, like energy bill relief, boosting food relief support, and putting a brake on rent increases.

One thing is certain. There are no winners in a race to the bottom.

Aimee McVeigh is CEO of Queensland Council of Social Service