LNP targets ‘frightening’ fiscal black hole at next Queensland poll
The growing interest bill on Queensland’s ballooning debt is ‘frightening’ and needs to be tackled, Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli says.
The growing interest bill on Queensland’s ballooning debt is “frightening” and needs to be tackled, Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli says.
Mr Crisafulli will lead the LNP’s attempt to topple Annastacia Palaszczuk’s third-term Labor government at the 2024 election with an ambitious plan to wrest 14 seats off the ALP.
Marking the halfway point of the government’s four-year term, Mr Crisafulli said the LNP was formulating a debt-reduction plan to take to the next election.
“We will have a fully costed plan, not just with a debt-reduction strategy but a service-delivery strategy as well,” he told The Australian.
“The greatest way we can reduce our debt is to grow the economy and ensure we cut wasteful spending.”
Mr Crisafulli said selling state assets and cutting government services was firmly “off the table”, after former LNP premier Campbell Newman slashed 14,000 public sector jobs and planned to privatise assets to pay down debt.
“There is not a Queenslander I speak to who would not want to see more doctors, nurses and police officers today, let alone in two years,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“We are going to need more people on the frontline because we are drowning at the moment.
Asked if an LNP government would increase taxes, Mr Crisafulli replied: “We are working through our tax policy, we are still two years out so I am not making any statement, and that is not a yes or a no”.
The state’s general public sector’s debt-to-revenue ratio is expected to grow to 112 per cent by July 2026 – the highest in more than a decade – as outlined in the June budget.
It compares with a 91 per cent debt-to-revenue ratio peak under the LNP Newman government.
With the pandemic’s normalisation of living with higher public debt, Queensland’s total debt will reach $128.6bn by July 2026.
Even on the government’s preferred measure of net debt, which excludes publicly owned companies, borrowings will more than triple during the next four years, reaching $39.2bn by mid-2026.
It remains considerably less than net debt in Victoria and NSW, tipped to hit $167.5bn and $114.8bn respectively.
Treasurer Cameron Dick announced last week that the state posted an unexpected $4.3bn surplus for the 2021-22 financial year, up from the $1.9bn predicted in the June budget.
Mr Crisafulli said despite increased revenue from coalmining taxes and property transfers, debt was growing.
“There are rivers of gold flowing in and yet our debt has increased,” he said.
“Our interest repayments will be circa $3bn, and with rising interest rates that is frightening.”
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