Townsville Enterprise excited for first budget under Crisafulli Government

Townsville Enterprise will be combing the 2024/25 state budget for election promises to ensure the government is delivering for the region.

Townsville Enterprise Limited CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith says it exciting times with the budget coming out Tuesday.

Townsville Enterprise will be combing the 2024/25 state budget for election promises to ensure the government is delivering for the region.

This comes as Treasurer David Janetzki wouldn’t say whether his first budget would include cuts to programs, jobs, or a public service hiring freeze, but North Queensland MPs say the region will get its fair share.

CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith said that while CopperString funding was front of mind, the smaller promises from the election would be key this financial year.

She said the advocacy body wanted to see down payments for the $5m Koala Hospital on Magnetic Island, which has been a key tourism drawcard to date.

“So there’s additional road funding in there we believe, and then our additional budgets are around tourism infrastructure, such as the Dungeness funding that’s in Lucinda,” she said.

“And obviously just general housing funding of $500m for regions in the budget that we can access to get housing and infrastructure for our regions.”

Ms Brumme-Smith said while it was exciting to see what would be in the budget, the most important investment has already been made.

“Our message has been clear to the Treasurer that for us the most important investment, and he made that already is the CopperString funding of an additional $1.4bn dollars,” Ms Brumme-Smith said.

“That really is enabling our pipeline of investment of $40bn to come to fruition, so I guess the biggest announcement is out of the bag.”

Aerial photo of the Townsville CBD. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Brumme-Smith was also expecting to see cuts in the budget, overall she has confidence in the Crisafulli Government.

“We will have to wait what that looks like, but ultimately we’re confident that, we voted for this government and we are confident we are going to see some good announcements,” Ms Brumme-Smith said.

The Townsville Enterprise CEO believes that it will be a good budget for the region, albeit a tight one.

“We think we will walk away with $1.5 to $1.6bn which is an amazing outcome for this region,” Ms Brumme-Smith said.

“And we advocated hard as a community to make sure that this government doesn’t forget their commitments to this region in their first budget.”

Townsville Enterprise will be hosting Mr Janetzki on July 2 for their members and the community.

“It will be interesting to hear his view on how the first budget hand down has made him feel,” Ms Brumme-Smith Said.

“And also we will discuss any cuts that we would get as well.”

Originally published as Townsville Enterprise excited for first budget under Crisafulli Government