Qld state budget 2025: Far North priorities funded, lacking detail
Health, housing and crime - this is what the LNP’s first state budget included for Far North Queensland.
Cairns
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A youth justice school will be built in Cairns after getting the nod in the LNP’s first state budget, while Cape York has cashed in with a significant number of major infrastructure projects.
Following an election where Premier David Crisafulli vowed to crack down on crime, $40m will go towards two youth facilities – one of which is earmarked for Cairns.
References to a Cairns youth detention centre in last year’s budget have been removed while funding for rehabilitation initiatives were included, but lacked detail on recipients.
This included the LNP’s promised $50m over four years for the Regional Reset Program and $65m over four years for “Gold Standard Early Intervention”.
The Edmonton Police station is set for a $35m upgrade, with $1m scheduled for the next year.
In the social housing space, Cairns received the largest contribution across the state with $73m in the budget for the next year to construct new dwellings and $52.6m to upgrade existing stock.
Treasurer David Janetzki announced that $1bn will be allocated to the Residential Activation Fund, double the anticipated amount, increasing the likelihood of Cairns Regional Council securing $23m for development of its southern growth corridor.
Recipients of this fund are expected to be announced in July.
In infrastructure, the state government will hand over another $166m for Cairns’ water security project in the next financial year, and allocated $38.4m towards the Cairns Marine Precinct Common User Facility for planning and enabling works.
Funds for a high performance centre received no mention, while the Barlow Park upgrade will come from a share of $864m allocated towards a number of minor venues across the state.
Communities outside Cairns were the winners on the health front with Atherton Hospital to receive a $12.9m refurbishment. Cooktown’s Multipurpose Health Service received $9m for eight new beds as part of its $200m major redevelopment.
The southern Cape community will also receive $350,000 to replace lighting at the Cooktown Oval, and another $500,000 under the Local Infrastructure Improvements Program towards its dinghy pontoon.
Mayor Robyn Holmes said while she welcomed the announcements, the hospital upgrade was “ultimately a state project” and was disappointed there was no money for Coen’s run-down water infrastructure.
“That was a $14m ask and if it fails, we can’t fix it without state government help,” Ms Holmes said.
“But similar size communities like Kowanyama (and Aurukun) received $8m for their water infrastructure projects.”
The latter two received funding for water infrastructure under a Closing The Gap initiative.
Cairns will receive $14m for a new adolescent mental health facility and another $67m towards ongoing works of the Cairns Hospital Expansion Refurbishment project.
Stage one of the $60m Cairns Health and Innovation Centre will also receive $2m in the 2025-26 financial year.
The $15m Smithfield Mountain Bike Park expansion project will receive $1.8m in the first year.
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