Editor’s view: LNP’s spending fail may be costly

There are promises a politician can break and promises that must be kept, writes the editor.

There are promises a politician can break and promises that must be kept.

Knowing the difference can be the key to maintaining power for anyone reaching high office.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli knew that last month when he announced plans to build a new stadium for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was clearly in breach of one of his key election promises of “no new stadiums” but he had an independent report by a team of experts to back him up as well as a genuine legacy-building, swanky new stadium to show off.

It was never going to be a deal breaker and he knew it.

A Courier-Mail poll soon after the announcement that asked whether voters cared that he had broken that promise saw in excess of 85 per cent say no.

The same forgiveness may not apply, however, when it comes to the Crisafulli government’s faltering attempts to cut state government spending.

A key LNP election promise was to save this state precisely $757m this financial year alone by creating the in-house agency, Queensland Government Consulting.

Yet, as revealed in today’s Sunday Mail, this new agency, expected to have been based on the federal government’s Australian Government Consulting, has not even been established yet.

With little more than two-and-a-half months to go – or 72 days to be exact – before the end of the financial year, the Treasury has instead directed departments to “implement greater scrutiny of current and future engagement of consultants and contractors” to find savings.

Spending across the state sector on contractors and consultants has become outlandish. In 2023-24 alone it increased by $474m to reach $3.7bn.

The Crisafulli-led LNP, quite rightly, highlighted these sorts of extravagant outlays as a key area of voter concern during the 2024 election campaign.

The now-Treasurer, David Janetzki, consistently put forward his proposal for the Queensland Government Consulting agency, which he promoted as a powerful corrective to the excesses.

The agency was to offer advice and build capability within the public sector, allowing for not only $757m in savings this year but billions more dollars in increased spending on consultants and contractors over the next four years.

“We will spend the Queensland taxpayer dollar carefully,’’ Mr Janetzki declared in words which may well come back to haunt him.

On February 9 this year the now ruling LNP government put out a press release marking its promised 100 days of achievement, and there was some reason to celebrate.

Certainly there has been action on youth crime and some movement on improving the health system.

But excessive government spending is clearly going to prove far more difficult to rein in, even if the LNP’s own overarching policy document released during last year’s campaign made it a clear priority.

A broken promise on a desperately needed new stadium is one thing. But voters may not be so forgiving when it comes to the state’s bottom line.

Originally published as Editor’s view: LNP’s spending fail may be costly