Hit spending before tax, Campbell Newman tells Tony Abbott

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has said his government had rejected a levy to tackle debt and instead cut spending.

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has weighed in to the debate over the proposed federal deficit levy, saying his government had rejected a similar revenue-raising measure to tackle debt and instead cut spending.

Mr Newman refused to comment directly on whether he supported the federal proposal, but said his government’s position was to “curtail expenditure first’’.

Last year, the Premier ordered the sacking of 14,000 public servants and he slashed a swath of programs after winning government in March 2012. “Those tough or strong decisions are there for other governments to make as well,’’ he said yesterday.

The cuts followed a report by a state commission of audit, led by former federal treasurer Peter Costello, which warned that gross debt would spiral to $100 billion by 2018-19 if spending levels were maintained.

Among the audit recommend­ations was a sell-off of state ass­ets — which is yet to be determined — and a “temporary deficit reduction levy” of $100 on all rateable properties. The levy was to raise just $200 million a year.

But Mr Newman said he did not agree to the recommendation because the Liberal National Party had campaigned ahead of the election on a promise to deal with cost-of-living issues.

“We rejected it,” he said. “We instead made tough decisions about cutting funding and sadly 14,000 people lost their jobs.

“The reason we did it that way was because we were conscious of the cost-of-living pressures on Queenslanders. We didn’t want taxes to rise, we didn’t want special levies, and so we made other tough decisions.’’

The Newman government is now preparing its final response to the Costello audit, with a proposal that will include assets sales to cut debt.

Mr Newman said the government’s funding cuts had already delivered, with forecasts that the state budget will be back in surplus by the 2015-16 financial year.