Queensland government failing to handle cost of living, house affordability and health crisis

The Palaszczuk government is failing to deliver on the three key issues that are the most important to Queenslanders, according to exclusive polling. But the state’s Treasurer has defended measures to combat some household pain.

The same key issues that voters think the Palaszczuk Government is failing to deliver on are also the topics they say are the most important, a damning new poll has revealed.

The YouGov poll for The Courier-Mail reveals that Queenslanders think cost of living, housing affordability and the health crisis are the issues of most importance to them.

But between 85 and 90 per cent of respondents rated the governments handling of each of those issues as poor, weak or average.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has rated poorly in its handling of cost of living, housing affordability and the health crisis. Picture: David Clark

Just 11 per cent of Queenslanders believe the Palaszczuk government is doing a good job to help ease cost of living pressures while only one in 10 voters think they’re doing enough to better housing affordability.

Fifteen per cent deemed the government’s performance around hospitals and ambulance ramping to be good or excellent.

Meanwhile just one in four voters say the government is doing well in terms of governing with integrity – and about one in three when it comes to managing the economy, building and maintaining infrastructure, and creating jobs.

Amid an ongoing health crisis across the state, and following a “record” health budget announced in June, just one in four Labor voters believe the government is doing a good job addressing struggling hospitals and ambulance ramping.

Forty per cent of Labor supporters deemed the government’s performance in health as average while 21 per cent considered it to be weak.

When it comes to helping ease the burden of cost of living, 35 per cent of Queenslanders believe the government is doing an average job while 28 per cent deemed its assistance as weak.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath. Picture: Evan Morgan

One in four Labor voters rated the government’s performance on cost of living as excellent or good – but 44 per cent deemed it average.

Meanwhile 18 per cent of Labor supporters believed the government was doing enough to combat housing affordability which the poll revealed was the second most important issue facing Queenslanders – trailing cost of living.

In Brisbane, 12 per cent of residents deemed the government’s performance as excellent or good while 32 per cent of people outside the southeast didn’t believe enough was being done.

But 56 per cent of Labor voters believe the government is doing a good job managing the state’s economy.

The cost of living is the most important issue confronting Queenslanders. Picture: David Crosling

While 29 per cent of Queenslanders are satisfied with how the government is managing the economy, 17 per cent deemed it weak.

On governing with integrity, 26 per cent of voters said the government was doing a good or excellent job while 36 per cent deemed its performance as average.

But 49 per cent of Labor voters were satisfied.

Just three per cent of Queenslanders deemed jobs to be the most important thing facing Queenslanders which was trailed by infrastructure.

Questioned about the polling on Tuesday, Treasurer Cameron Dick said the Palaszczuk government was keeping the cost of living down where it controlled it.

“In this budget alone, we’ve got $6.8 billion in concessions for Queenslanders,” he said.

“That’s an increase of 10 per cent in one year, in fact concessions that we provide back to Queenslanders have increased 44 per cent over the period of our government, it’s beaten inflation every single year and that will continue.”

Mr Dick said the government had kept the cost of government fees and charges down - increasing this year at half the rate of inflation.

“There are many issues when it comes to cost of living, things like fuel prices, the state can’t control that,” he said.

“But I’m so pleased the federal government is putting together a new budget, a budget that they’ve said will focus on the cost of living that they will deliver in October.”