Queensland Labor’s brazen, reckless spendathon

Months from the October 26 Queensland election, if Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli is not regretting his promise to adopt Labor’s budget holus-bolus for four years – before he even read it – he should be. The record spendathon delivered on Tuesday leaves voters with a choice between the irresponsible and, at this stage, the inert. Excessive electoral bribes are bad enough; this litany of handouts is a blueprint for big government dependency. Treasurer Cameron Dick claims: “It delivers what Queenslanders deserve.”

When and how did 5.6 million people become so reliant on the state to live their lives? On top of handouts previously flagged – $1000 or more in power subsidies for all, 50c public transport fares, 20 per cent off vehicle registration – the taxpayer- and debt-funded largesse extends the government footprint to free kindy, free flu shots, learn-to-swim lessons, $200 FairPlay vouchers to fund children’s sport, doubling the first-home owner grant, GPs in 50 state secondary schools one day a week and subsidised breakfasts and lunches. The nanny state is set to flourish.

Queensland is “Victoria with coal”, as Judith Sloan writes. Coal revenue has soared as a result of the punitive royalty scheme imposed on the industry in 2022-23. The forward estimates, however, project a sharp fall in both coal and liquefied natural gas royalties – $4.5bn for coal receipts in 2027-28 compared with $15.3bn last financial year. If those projections are right, the state will be under severe financial pressure as it moves towards the 2032 Olympics, the planning of which is a shambles after wasted years.

Funding renewable energy projects to meet the state’s 75 per cent emissions reduction target by 2035 – which has bipartisan support – accounts for a substantial slice of capital spending. That includes the controversial $12bn Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro scheme, supported by the Greens and derided as a “hoax” by the LNP. The project has a long way to go financially. The $38.5m included in the budget for early works on the project and a $1bn equity commitment across the forward estimates will be a fraction of the resources needed.

Most of the budget sweeteners are not means tested. And they come at a price. “If a deficit is the price to be paid to provide nation-leading cost-of-living relief, then that is a price we are willing to pay,” Mr Dick told parliament. Many of the goodies, conveniently, peter out after the election. In addition to a deficit, the real cost of the spending spree is debt and the cost of servicing it. Premier Steven Miles and Mr Dick are oblivious, evidently, to the end result of years of similar policies under Daniel Andrews in Victoria.

Total government debt, Lydia Lynch and Michael McKenna reported on Monday, is projected to rise to $172bn from mid-2023 to the end of the 2027-28 financial year, incurring an additional $4.76bn in interest payments across four years. Total government debt in the last year of the Newman government, in contrast, was about $75bn. Neither major party in Queensland, as yet, has produced a credible plan for tackling debt. But plenty of cynical sleight of hand is at play. On Monday, Mr Dick tried to make a virtue of what he called “careful management”, cutting state debt by $17bn across the past two months. In April he predicted total debt would reach $188bn by mid-2028. He achieved the cuts, he told the budget press conference on Tuesday, by saying no to various ministers’ spending proposals. He did not provide details. Could he give examples, he was asked. “No.”

Nor did he or Mr Miles hide their brazen pitch to voters. On polling day, Mr Dick said in his budget speech, Queenslanders should “make a choice about their future”, not “express an opinion about the past”. After nine years of indifferent government under Annastacia Palaszczuk that has left Queenslanders weary and dissatisfied, it is understandable he is pushing that argument. But it is wishful thinking, surely.

The faces have changed but Labor’s approach, determined largely by powerful public sector and other trade unions, has not. That is clear in the public service employee expenses in the budget. Including wages and leave, these are expected to rise by 6 per cent in the coming year, about a third above inflation. Mr Miles and Mr Dick are correct on one point – Mr Crisafulli needs to do some serious policy work if he is to present an alternative vision. Queenslanders deserve better than this budget, which asks them to overlook the past nine years of mediocrity in return for a few shiny shekels. This is far from the state’s finest hour.