The Editor: Forget Stacia. It’s Campbell Newman who still looms large over this Budget
David Janetzki has been left a shocking headache, largely through no fault of his own. You might even say he is suffering from a hangover, despite having missed the party, writes The Editor.
Opinion
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Queenslanders today are paying the price of the past two failed administrations – both of which they soundly rejected at the ballot box but whose poor decisions still loom large.
That is the key takeout of Treasurer David Janetzki’s first State Budget, delivered yesterday.
It is a document that exposes in black and white (and lots of red ink too) the almost incomprehensibly poor economic management of the Labor Palaszczuk-Miles administration that has left the state’s financial position in ruins.
But this Budget is also a document that exposes just how long the shadow is that is still being cast by former LNP premier Campbell Newman, whose bull at a gate style of governing has robbed his conservative successors 10 years on of the ability to chart a proper way out of the mess left by Labor.
If you want a summary of the state’s economic position, it is simple: Queensland is broke.
Debt is forecast to crack $205bn over the next four years. That is the equivalent of $36,000 for every single Queenslander. And so yep, the overspend by our politicians is so massive that they could have instead bought us all – including each of our kids – a new car.
The operating deficit – that is, how much more the government plans to spend than what it will take in revenue – has meanwhile hit $8.5bn. That compares to just – just! – $5.7bn during Covid.
This is not a dumpster fire. This is scorched earth. This is not a Budget. This is an economic basket case.
It is clear now why the Premier and Treasurer have so vehemently resisted any adjustments to the industry-destroying coal royalties scheme imposed without warning three years ago on a sector that one in five Queenslanders depend on by former treasurer Cameron Dick. They have stuck with it despite acknowledging it is destroying jobs because they have no other way of raising the billions it provides and that they so desperately need.
Even with those damaging rivers of gold flowing into the state coffers, Treasurer Janetzki’s strategy is still to rely on three years of penny pinching and fiscal discipline to right the ship.
Thanks to not wanting to be labelled as the new Newman regime, there are no real deep savings measures. Mr Janetzki is instead left to rely on chipping around the edges rather than taking on the sort of deep reforms that are necessary but would be political suicide. It’s a shocking headache he is having to endure, largely through no fault of his own. One might even say Mr Janetzki is suffering from the hangover, despite having missed the party.
It is not all Labor’s fault, though – at least not directly. Those coal royalties have been falling as world prices moderate. The state’s share of the GST has recently been cut by billions. And interstate migration continues to surge, putting more pressure on the government in terms of funding services.
The numbers unveiled yesterday are therefore far worse than those that were in Mr Dick’s final Budget a year ago – even though the current government is claiming those figures were bogus, and that they have already done some repair work to the figures they themselves unveiled in the January mid-year Budget update.
Mr Janetzki claimed again that Mr Dick has simply not funded a range of infrastructure projects and other announced programs. And – based on Mr Dick’s shocking track record – he could be right.
But that does not matter now. The buck stops with the LNP and Mr Janetzki and so it is past the time that he should quit talking about the previous administration’s failures. The voters saw that and they punished them with one of the biggest defeats in Queensland Labor’s history. At the same time they entrusted the LNP Crisafulli government with the keys to the Budget – and to running the state. And they did that exactly eight months ago tomorrow. This is now Mr Janetzki’s mess to clean up – and it is through doing so that he will play his part in the LNP’s return to power, or not, in October 2028.
He made much yesterday of his promise to freeze the growth of the public service’s executive ranks. But the frontline ranks that soak up the vast bulk of the cost will continue to swell as population grows, and the government funds any union-won wage increases. Getting things back on an even keel is a puzzle, and it is one that this fairly meek Budget does not solve. And so, once again, political considerations have won over sound economic management.
Originally published as The Editor: Forget Stacia. It’s Campbell Newman who still looms large over this Budget
Editor’s view: New treasurer missed the party, but gets the hangover
That is the key takeout of Treasurer David Janetzki’s first State Budget, delivered yesterday, is that we are paying the price of the past two failed state governments, writes the editor.
LNP’s first budget in 11 years is as boring as Weet-Bix without milk
For most Queenslanders there are no political sweeteners, with the conservative treasurer instead focused solely on budget repair but it’s a big risk for David Janetzki, writes Hayden Johnson.