Qld budget: David Janetzki blames Westgate Punt, Covid-19 failures for $5.3bn GST ‘rip-off’

Treasurer David Janetzki has hit out at the bizarre calculations that have stolen a whopping $5.3bn GST from Queensland, with NSW and Victoria cashing in.

• Editor’s view: Give it the punt

Bizarre claims about Melbourne’s ferry network and the historic Covid-19 policy “failures” of Victoria and New South Wales were used to justify the $5.3bn GST robbery from Queensland, Treasurer David Janetzki says.

The state was stripped of $2.3bn this financial year and will lose $5.3bn over three years, largely due to an eye-watering boost of coal royalty revenue.

Mr Janetzki said almost every major decision made by the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission to determine the GST carve-up was detrimental to Queensland.

He noted only half of the reduction in GST was due to coal revenue.

TODAY’S EDITORIAL SAYS IT IS HIGH TIME THE METHOD FOR GST DISTRIBUTION IS OVERHAULED. READ IT NOW

Mr Janetzki – whose state budget last week forecast four years of debt and deficit – will use a major Committee for Economic Development of Australia speech in Brisbane on Monday to criticise other factors that contributed to the GST reduction.

“We were stripped of $800m to reimburse New South Wales and Victoria for Covid-19 policy failures, five years after the fact,” he said.

“The Yarra has nothing on our brown snake, yet buried in the CGC’s mishmash of assessments is that Melbourne requires twice as much funding for ferries as Brisbane.

“Brisbane’s annual ferry patronage is more than four million compared to a negligible amount in Melbourne.”

Melbourne’s Westgate Punt ferry service. Picture: Fishermans Bend

Victoria’s GST share was affected by the presence of a ferry service in its urban area – despite that service being only a three-minute crossing of the Yarra River on the Westgate Punt.

In 2023 some 36,500 passengers made the journey underneath the Westgate Bridge – just 100 people a day.

In comparison, Brisbane’s fleet of 32 CityCats and KittyCats stopping at 18 wharves between St Lucia and Hamilton is forecast to cost Brisbane City Council $85.5m next financial year.

Queensland argued the grants commission should consider the scale of the ferry service operating in Brisbane and Sydney compared to Melbourne.

Queensland argued ferry services should be excluded from GST calculations if fewer than 1 per cent of a city’s public transport trips were on water.

The commission rejected the proposal and noted it was important to “capture all state transport services”.

Mr Janetzki also noted Brisbane’s lower population density – due to the city being built on a flood plain – meant it was assessed as needing only a small fraction of the public transport infrastructure of Sydney and Melbourne.

Mr Janetzki said the commission’s change had a devastating impact on Queensland, with $2.3bn lost next year and more than $5.3bn over the next three years.

Treasurer David Janetzki last week. Picture: Liam Kidston

Queensland’s GST revenue in 2025-26 is 28 per cent higher than it was in 2015-16 – a significantly lower increase than the 58 per cent jump for New South Wales, 118 per cent for Victoria and 317 per cent for Western Australia.

Mr Janetzki said the commission’s calculations were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the challenges of service delivery in a large and decentralised state.

“They effectively assume the cost of serving a resident in Ballarat, 113km from Melbourne, is the same as the cost of serving a resident in Mackay, 968km from Brisbane,” he said.

He argued the GST distribution should not compensate states for economic or financial mismanagement.

Mr Janetzki noted Victoria and New South Wales benefited from a belief neither state had an ability to raise petroleum royalties – despite both having significant gas resources.

“Specific and deliberate policy choices by those jurisdictions have restricted their gas production with ideological moratoriums,” he said.

“Queensland’s sensible support of gas production has benefits beyond state borders and should not lead to a reduction in our share.”

To make the GST distribution more equitable, Mr Janetzki will argue the “sweetheart deal for Western Australia” should be axed and top-up payments to ensure no state is worse off should remain.

Originally published as Qld budget: David Janetzki blames Westgate Punt, Covid-19 failures for $5.3bn GST ‘rip-off’