Coronavirus Qld impact to outstrip initial estimate of $1.7b

Treasurer Jackie Trad says the Queensland Budget will be focused on keeping people in jobs as the Government absorbs as much of the coronavirus impact as possible.

THE economic impact of the coronavirus to the Queensland economy will be even worse than the $1.7 billion hit initially feared, Treasurer Jackie Trad has revealed.

Ms Trad said the escalating crisis meant Treasury modelling released in late February predicting the impact of coronavirus on the economy would be between $900 million to $1.7 billion this financial year had now been eclipsed.

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“This is constantly evolving, it’s constantly evolving,” she said today.

“I’ve spoken to a number of large employers in the community and the total stoppage of customers – people are cancelling domestic flights, big events are being cancelled.

“With those sorts of elements unfolding, what this has meant is even more of an economic impact, or shock, than we had anticipated as few weeks ago.

“We are constantly analysing this situation and I will be making further comments in Parliament this week.”

She said keeping Queenslanders in jobs through the coronavirus crisis would be the focus of the April 28 Budget, as Ms Trad acknowledging people were already being laid off.

Ms Trad said additional measures to protect against job losses were being worked on, in addition to stimulus measures and a six month deferral of payroll tax already announced.

“We know we’re bracing for a very rocky ride here but the Palaszczuk Government is fundamentally focused on making sure businesses are buffered and that they are keeping Queenslanders in work,” Ms Trad said.

“We are pulling together our Budget right now, and we have got our eyes firmly focused on how we can support industries in our economy, small businesses in our economy, workers in our economy to make sure that economic activity continues, that there is government money flowing through the economy as the Reserve Bank has advised, (and) that the government is absorbing a lot of the shock of the coronavirus.”

She said the Budget would be “absolutely focused” on the Government absorbing much of the shock of the coronavirus, the state economy “bouncing back” from its impacts and the health system having the resources it needed.