Queensland Budget 2018: Waste levy to generate $1.3 billion over four years
IN a State Budget with very little surprises, the whopping amount of dollars the Palaszczuk Government’s new waste levy will generate over the next four years has raised eyebrows – with a third of the funds set to flow back into the Treasury’s coffers.
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THE Palaszczuk Government’s new rubbish tax will make a whopping $1.3 billion in just four years with about a third of that cash to be funnelled into Treasury’s coffers, the Budget papers have revealed.
The waste levy, expected to begin as early as January 1, will initially be set at $70 a tonne before rising by $5 a year for four years to $90 per tonne.
It will raise about $100 million this coming financial year with the Budget papers revealing it will then bring in a massive $405 million in its first full year in 2019/20, $408 million in 2020/21 and a further $407 million in 21/22.
“Between 2018/19 and 21/22 it is expected that over 70 per cent of revenue generated through the waste levy will be allocated to advance payments to councils, scheme start-up and operational costs, industry programs and other environmental priorities,” the Budget papers state.
The papers state the remaining third will go back into consolidated revenue.
It is the biggest surprise contained within Treasurer Jackie Trad’s first Budget today with the majority of the good and bad news announced in the lead up.
About $32 million will be spent this coming financial year on advanced payments to councils to stop them passing on the cost of the levy to households.
About $100 million will be spent over three years on a waste and recycling industry development fund.
Councils have been calling for the entire waste levy to go back into creating the waste and recycling industry including establishing up to 10 new waste to energy power stations across the state.
The Government’s four other new taxes including a new point of consumption tax and increases for foreign investors and owners of luxury cars and properties worth more than $10 million will raise about $900 million for the State’s coffers over the next four years.
That includes $366.9 million from the point of consumption tax after the Government moved to apply it to all betting operators licensed in Australia.
That is up from the $120 million it was initially forecast to raise when it was only going to apply to online wagering.
Smaller operators will only have to pay the 15 per cent tax on revenue exceeding an annual threshold of $300,000.
Ms Trad has described her first budget as an infrastructure and jobs budget tipped to help support about 38,000 jobs in 2018/19 including about 33,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
This will be achieved with the help of an $11.583 billion capital expenditure spend in 2018/19.
About 65 per cent of this year’s infrastructure spend will be spent outside the greater Brisbane area, Ms Trad said.
But the budget papers show this will do little to help reduce the unemployment rate, however.
All up about $45 billion will be spent on infrastructure over four years.
The rate is forecast to remain at or above 6 per cent for the next three financial years, coming in a 6.25 per cent in 2018/19 and then 6 per cent in 2019/20 and 20/21.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has repeatedly refused to name her preferred unemployment rate other than to say she wanted to see a five in front of it.
The Budget papers predict this will not happen until 2021/22 when the unemployment rate is then expected to fall to 5.75 per cent.
Employment growth is forecast at 1.5 per cent in 2018/19, rising to 1.75 per cent in the following two financial years, well down on the 2.75 per cent growth in 2017/18.
As revealed by The Courier-Mail on Tuesday, the Government will finish the 2017/18 financial year with an operating surplus of $1.512 billion thanks to a booming resources sector.
That’s $1 billion more than forecast in the Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Review and $1.366 billion more than was forecast by former Treasurer Curtis Pitt when he handed down his third and final Budget last year.
A much smaller operating surplus of $148 million is forecast for 2018/19, down on what was predicted in the MYFER.
That operating surplus will reduce further in 2019/20 and 2020/21 before increasing to $690 million in 21/22.
Economic growth is forecast at three per cent in 2018/19.
The public service will continue to increase in a bid to meet Labor’s election commitments with an additional 3833 full-time equivalents to be hired in 2018/19 – an increase of about 1.7 per cent.
That follows an additional 8380 FTEs added in 2017/18 - an increase of almost four per cent or more than twice population growth.
About $17.3 billon will be spent on health and $14 billion on education.
“Labor is doing the things we said we would do,” Ms Trad told the House in her inaugural Budget speech which focused on the positives and made no mention of debt amid forecasts it will reach $83 billion in 2021/22. No surprises, no excuses.”
About $733 million will be spent on the Cross River rail project while $900 million has been allocated to series of upgrades to the M1.
About $160 million has been set aside for the $780 million Sunshine Coast rail duplication.
The Commonwealth has so far only promised to put in half that.
Ms Trad used her Budget speech to take aim at the Turnbull Government for not contributing more to major projects in Queensland.
“This Queensland Government must do the heavy lifting in infrastructure investment because this Federal Government simply will not,” she said.
What do you think of the State Budget 2018? Let us know in the comments below.
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