Roads will remain congested, housing hard to come by under big Jim’s uninspiring budget

The budget offered the perfect opportunity for Logan’s Jim Chalmers to flex his muscle and set Queensland up for a generation but his big spend is not where it’s needed most, writes Hayden Johnson.

Labor holds just five of 30 federal seats in Queensland and, according to this budget, it doesn’t seem to want to change that.

Roads will remain congested, housing hard to come by and landmark infrastructure projects kicked down the road in a budget more about surviving than thriving.

One of the dwindling Labor MPs north of the border is Treasurer Jim Chalmers – the boy from Logan thrust into the national spotlight and touted as the party’s best economic performer since Paul Keating.

Treasurer of Australia Jim Chalmers had the perfect opportunity to flex his muscle.

This budget offered the perfect opportunity for Dr Chalmers to flex his muscle, make a dent and spend big to set Queensland up for a generation.

He’s delivered a big spending statement, just not where we needed him to.

Like his state counterpart, Dr Chalmers will pour billions of dollars into Band-Aid cost of living power bill relief for people who probably don’t need it.

Queenslanders stuck in traffic this week will again be pondering why well-paid pollies in Brisbane and Canberra consistently fail to forward plan for this state’s growth.

What did we get on Tuesday night?

Sure, $268m to fight a losing battle against fire ants, $1m for a North Queensland insurance comparison website, $2m for a Channel Nine telethon and $27m to oversee the $466m spend on PsiQuantum are important – but they’re hardly inspiring.

M1 Pacific Motorway traffic heading southbound towards the Gold Coast from Brisbane. Picture: Nigel Hallett

This might be the last budget before a federal election and it suggests Labor isn’t holding hope of making a dent in fortress Queensland.

It also offers little firepower to Premier Steven Miles as his government flounders in the polls.

It seems Dr Chalmers forgot there’s a state election in October and his Labor mates face oblivion.

The Palaszczuk-turned-Miles government has struggled having Labor colleagues in the Lodge.

Looming cuts to Queensland infrastructure in October fuelled anger in the highest levels of the Palaszczuk government, where its most senior figures privately conceded the Coalition’s Michael McCormack was far better to deal with.

Federal Labor’s Queensland MPs could fit in a Toyota Tarago and it increasingly seems there’s little appetite for that to change.

Originally published as Roads will remain congested, housing hard to come by under big Jim’s uninspiring budget