Queensland election: LNP won’t limit bureaucracy’s wages explosion, says David Crisafulli
David Crisafulli has no plans to control public sector salary growth, despite the bureaucracy’s wage bill ballooning by more than 75 per cent in a decade under Queensland’s Labor government.
David Crisafulli has no plans to control public sector salary growth, despite the bureaucracy wage bill ballooning out by more than 75 per cent in a decade under Queensland’s Labor government.
The LNP Opposition Leader also would not say how much his government would have to borrow to fund its election promises, despite a warning from ratings agency S&P that rising debt to fund government operations or infrastructure commitments could risk the state’s AA+ credit rating.
Mr Crisafulli said the Liberal National Party costings would not be revealed until next Thursday – two days before the October 26 election, and nearly a fortnight after early voting started – but he reiterated his preference to borrow for capital projects and not the day-to-day running of government, and said an LNP government would target operational surpluses.
That was contradicted by his Treasury spokesman David Janetzki – who has not appeared alongside Mr Crisafulli once during the official campaign – who said a fiscal deficit might be necessary to fund election promises “if we’re borrowing to build”.
Mr Crisafulli said the state’s AAA credit rating, lost under the Bligh Labor government in 2009, would be restored only if the government changed hands, but did not say how or when. “Our plan is to get rid of a really bad government because otherwise it’s going to keep sliding,” he said.
The Australian last week also revealed the wage bill had increased from $19.96bn for 209,999 full-time equivalent public servants in 2015-16 to $35.22bn for 266,999 in this year’s budget, an increase of 57,000 full-time positions in the public service since Annastacia Palaszczuk was elected in January 2015.
Asked whether he would consider voluntary redundancies or a hiring freeze for non-frontline public sector workers, Mr Crisafulli said he wanted every public servant to “understand that they are going to be part of the change” and a “world-class public service”.
“They can be part of the change in delivering the services free from the dead hand of government, and that’s our commitment to them,” he said.
The LNP leader has been dogged by Labor attacks accusing him of planning to cut public servants, after he was part of the one-term Newman government ministry that slashed 14,000 FTE public servants between 2012 and 2015.
He has ruled out making enforced redundancies.
Mr Crisafulli said borrowings and taxes would be lower under the LNP and revenue would be increased by reintroducing a productivity commission, cutting spending on consultants, and making ministers accountable for infrastructure blow-outs.
Total debt is forecast to hit $172bn by 2027-28.
Labor Treasurer Cameron Dick said Mr Crisafulli would have to cut $3bn from the budget if he didn’t increase debt to fund the workings of government, and that did not include an estimated $18bn in LNP election promises.
Premier Steven Miles said Labor would return the budget to surplus by mid-2027.
In June, Treasury officials predicted Labor’s pre-election spending would thrust the state into a $2.63bn deficit this financial year and $515m in 2025-26.
The budget forecast an $887m surplus in 2026-27 and a much larger $2bn surplus in 2027-28.
Mr Miles has conceded Labor’s big-spending campaign promises – worth more than $9bn, all funded through extra borrowings – would shrink those forecast surpluses, but insisted the government was still on track to return to surplus in two years.
“We have a clear plan to return to surplus, but what we know is that Queenslanders’ priority right now is their cost of living, and so at this exact point in time, what Queenslanders want to see is us supporting them with their cost of living,” he said.
“That’s why we’ve gone into deficit over these two years, but we know we’re turning a corner.”
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