Treasurer Cameron Dick delivers 2024-2025 Queensland budget with plea to voters

With just 137 days before Queenslanders go to the polls, Treasurer Cameron Dick has laid the groundwork for the fight to avoid a wipe-out, urging voters to forget about the past.

• Analysis: What it REALLY means

Treasurer Cameron Dick has set aside a $184m war chest and urged Queenslanders to forget the past nine years as part of his high-spending pre-election budget packed with political sugar hits and a bomb for the next government.

Featuring significant winners and few losers, Mr Dick will plunge Queensland into deficit in the next 12 months to fund huge and temporary cost of living measures.

Just 137 days before Queenslanders go to the polls, Mr Dick has laid the groundwork for the fight to avoid a wipe-out.

Treasurer Cameron Dick hands down the 2024-25 State Budget. Picture: Dan Peled

He has quietly put aside $184m for decisions “made but not yet announced”, to be used by the government ahead of the election.

In a staggering effort to distance Premier Steven Miles from his predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk, Mr Dick has asked Queenslanders “not to express an opinion about the past”.

“The 26th of October is a fight about the future of our state, not a referendum on the last nine years,” he said.

Five weeks of drip-feeding major announcements meant there were few new headline measures in the treasurer’s fifth budget.

Significant spending over the next 12 months will send the state into a $2.6bn deficit, but the financial situation is “expected to improve” from June 2025 when cost of living relief is forecast to be wound back.

Treasurer Cameron Dick has set aside a $184m war chest ahead of the October state election. Picture: Dan Peled

Some $3.7bn of the $11.2bn cost of living relief is due to expire within 12 months, which would create major political headaches for whichever party delivers next year’s budget.

It also means future budget surpluses are predicated on the measures ending.

When asked if the budget was formed with one eye on the election, Premier Steven Miles did not answer directly, but insisted it was informed by listening.

“Our focus here has been on what Queenslanders have told us,” he said.

To recover from the significant pre-election spend, Mr Dick has launched a plan to find $3bn in savings across the government over the next four years – some $750m per year.

Agencies have been told to reduce the use of consultants, find savings in employee expenses and limit travel.

Premier Steven Miles (right) and Treasurer Cameron Dick have handed down the 2024-25 State Budget. Picture: Dan Peled

No new advertising campaigns will start from August 1 – other than public safety and recruitment campaigns – but those already started will be allowed to continue.

Public service heads will also be encouraged to promote flexible work arrangements to help “reduce the need for office accommodation” and explore regionalisation.

Mr Dick said “not one Queenslander” would lose their jobs as part of the savings plan.

He warned of “unprecedented volatility” in revenue as the cash tap created by the state’s mining sector significantly slows.

The budget predicts a “large decline in royalties” of $4.36bn in 2024-25 as coal and oil prices moderate.

Coal royalties will deliver $10.5bn this financial year before tapering off to $6.23bn in 2024-25 and average $4.63bn over the following three years.

Coal royalties will deliver $10bn this financial year before tapering off.

It will be offset, however, by a significant uplift in tax revenue.

Queenslanders are expected to be stung as the government rolls out more speed, seatbelt and phone cameras.

Fines and forfeiture revenue will soar from $794m to $912m over the next 12 months.

Businesses will boost the bottom line with a $400m increase to payroll tax and a strong jobs and property market will help the government rake in an extra $2.12bn in taxation in 2024–25.

Borrowings will total $77.1bn in 2024-25 and are projected to hit $111.3bn by 2027-28.

It means Queensland will pay $2.65bn in interest on those borrowings this financial year and $4.76bn per year by 2027-28.

Net debt is expected to rise from $12.2bn this financial year to $59.8bn over the next four years.

Despite the significant spend, Mr Dick argues the state remains in a strong economic position.

“This is a budget for the time it’s a budget that delivers what matters,” he said.

In an attempt to wedge the opposition into supporting changes to payroll and land tax, Mr

The Queensland Government has today handed down the 2024-25 State Budget.

Dick will introduce the changes as separate legislation – forcing the LNP to vote on them.

“I really think this bloke needs to start having the courage of his convictions and showing Queensland just what he really believes,” the treasurer said.

Shadow Treasurer David Janetzki said Mr Dick’s effort to distance he and Mr Miles from Ms Palaszczuk showed its “desperate nature”.

“This election budget was all about getting Steven Miles through the next four months to the election,” he said.

“Never has a Queensland government spent more, borrowed more, taxed more and left Queenslanders with less to show for it.”

A 1 per cent payroll tax discount for businesses registered in regional Queensland – introduced in 2019-20 – will now exclude “extremely large businesses” which pay more than $350m in wages.

The 20 per cent reduction in vehicle registration will cost the budget $306m this financial year, but is expected to bounce back and deliver a record $2.47bn boost to the government in 2025-26.

The state’s population will grow 1.5 per cent over the coming year amid calls from Mr Miles for the federal government to drastically slow international migration.

Queensland’s economy is expected to grow to 3 per cent next financial year before slowing to 2.5 per cent.

Stubbornly high inflation will halve to 2 per cent in the coming year before rising to 3.25 per cent in 2025-26.