Opinion: Federal budget exposes Queensland’s flimsy accounts

QUEENSLAND was on track to achieve the largest operating surplus in more than a decade until the Federal Treasurer fiddled the figures and exposed our flimsy accounts.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt’s promises of surpluses in future years will be a hard argument to sell when he brings down the Budget on June 14 given the last one just evaporated.

WITH some fiddling of figures, Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has robbed his Queensland counterpart Curtis Pitt of his prized operating surplus.

The state’s Treasurer had been on track to deliver the largest operating surplus in more than a decade, back before the global financial crisis cruelled Queensland’s revenue and debt went through the roof.

It would have been a fiscal fillip for the Palaszczuk Government which has struggled to find a credible and consistent economic narrative outside of not selling assets.

TRAD: Disaster funds delay ‘outrageous’

However, Federal Budget papers this week revealed $1.3 billion of disaster recovery funding won’t flow in 2015-16 as scheduled.

Despite the rhetoric about how it was the State Government’s “new fiscal principles” which had got the Treasury accounts back in black, disaster funding was essentially Pitt’s entire surplus.

Now Morrison has spread that disaster money over two years from 2016-17, the $1.2 billion operating surplus outlined in the Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Review is looking decidedly shaky.

Pitt admitted as much this week, saying Morrison’s meddling with the timing of National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) would have a “dramatic impact” on his surplus.

“We are going to be taking a very close look at what the NDRRA funding means because ultimately this is going to have a significant impact on our Budget and we want answers,” he said.

Pitt could be hoping an uptick in property taxes may help prevent the calamity of the Budget being dragged back into the red in 2015-16.

However, Treasury is already banking on a $100 million improvement from transfer duty in 2015-16 and that’s despite slowing population growth leading to only moderate property price rises in Brisbane, the state’s premier real estate market.

While the silver lining of Morrison putting off paying the disaster bill will improve the state’s surpluses in subsequent years, it has exposed just how flimsy Queensland’s accounts actually are.

Pitt promising bigger surpluses in future years will be a hard argument to sell when he brings down the Budget on June 14 given the last one just evaporated.

And all the while the state’s fiscal balance – the measure that includes the accounts of government businesses which is used by ratings agencies – will remain above $1 billion every year for the foreseeable future.

The problem of the disappearing operating surplus is a sneaky political wedge by Morrison.

It is not of Pitt’s making.

However, the result will sharpen criticism that the Palaszczuk Government has done little to address Queensland’s fiscal malaise which is a drag on the economy and costing investment in infrastructure.

It will also prompt fresh questions about the Palaszczuk Government’s economic plan.

Hopefully Labor started working on some answers at their Clear Mountain Lodge love-in this week.

Steven Wardill is The Courier-Mail’s state political editor

Originally published as Opinion: Federal budget exposes Queensland’s flimsy accounts