Queensland election: LNP’s David Janetzki says ‘no downgrade on my watch’

In a rare interview, the man aspiring to be Queensland’s next treasurer opens up on what he will do if he gets his hands on the purse strings.

LNP Treasury spokesman David Janetzki in state parliment. Picture: NewsWire / Scott Powick

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The man who wants to become Queensland’s next treasurer has declared that restoration of the state’s once-cherished triple-A credit rating won’t be on his to-do list if the Liberal National Party wins the October 26 election.

David Janetzki’s mission will be to “stabilise” a government balance sheet that is groaning under debt forecast to hit $172bn over the budget forward estimates and avoiding a credit downgrade of the existing AA+ rating.

In a rare interview, the LNP’s Treasury spokesman signalled his discomfort with the amount of debt that will carry over from Labor in the likely event of a change of government.

By 2027-28, the interest bill would surge to an eye-watering $7.73bn a year, an impost “that should concern any treasurer”.

But Mr Janetzki, who has maintained a low profile in the campaign to date, pointedly refused to spell out the LNP’s commitment to lower both debt and state taxes without cutting frontline government services.

He would not nominate a target figure on debt or say when an LNP government would start to pay it down – in line with the ­detail-light “small target” election strategy pursued by Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.

Mr Janetzki in his Toowoomba electorate in July. Picture: Christine Schindler

Mr Janetzki’s position on Queensland’s triple-A credit rating, lost in 2009 under then Labor premier Anna Bligh, underlines how voters know more about what the LNP won’t do in office than its agenda for governing.

Mr Janetzki told The Weekend Australian: “Right now what’s on my horizon is stabilising our current fiscal position and the rating we currently have.” Asked ­whether regaining triple-A status would be on his agenda as ­treasurer, he said: “It’s about ­stabilising our fiscal position and ensuring our current rating is secure.”

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s warned this week that a debt-funded election spending binge would put the AA+ grading at risk if the state government’s fiscal management slipped or debt climbed above forecast levels.

Labor says it has spent $9.1bn to date on election promises – a figure contested by Mr Janetzki, who insisted the actual tab was more than triple that. Premier Steven Miles, in turn, claims the LNP has racked up commitments worth $17bn so far, while Mr Janetzki said the cost was less than $8.5bn.

Labor Treasurer Cameron Dick concedes the government’s election spending will lift state debt to $180bn over the forward estimates should his side be ­returned.

Mr Janetzki said engaging with the rating agencies would be a priority if he took Mr Dick’s job. “I don’t want to be a treasurer that has a ratings downgrade on my watch. It’s that simple,” he said.

The scale of Queensland’s debt burden has been laid bare by economist Gene Tunny in a new analysis for conservative-leaning think tank, the Australian Institute for Progress. Net debt per capita was expected to be $9150 in 2028, nearly five times higher than what it was when Labor came to power in 2015.

Interest expenses that currently accounted for 3 per cent of state government revenues would increase to 5 per cent in 2027-28.

Mr Tunny, a former federal Treasury officer, warned that the LNP’s pledge to honour Labor’s legislated spending commitments over the budget forward estimates meant any critique of fiscal policy “applies to both the current government and the opposition”.

Economist Gene Tunny.

Asked if he was comfortable with the level of state debt he would potentially manage as treasurer, Mr Janetzki said: “I think where it becomes most concerning … is when you consider the ­interest costs associated with this debt. And I think there has to be a recognition of that.

“Let’s say that the state budget has $90bn … to spend across all the service delivery areas that we have. By the end of the forwards if the interest bill on that is as forecast at $7.73bn then there are going to be challenges.

“Now, it’s incumbent that every taxpayer dollar is respected. I think … Queenslanders manage their household budgets very carefully, and I think the state government should do the same thing. My view for a very long time now has been we need a mature, responsible and methodical ­conversation about the state ­budget.” The son of a Darling Downs dairy farmer who had a high-flying career in law and ­finance before entering state parliament eight years ago, Mr Janetzki, 46, said savings under the LNP would come from delivering infrastructure on time and on budget, putting “teeth” into the cabinet budget review committee and re-establishing a state productivity commission to drive efficiencies across the public sector. The LNP would also axe a number of big-ticket Labor initiatives, including the giant Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project for a claimed saving of $24bn and Mr Miles’s $1.3bn plan for free school lunches.

Mr Janetzki, left, fronts the media with LNP leader David Crisafulli, centre, and Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

But there would be no forced redundancies among Queensland’s 266,000 public servants, whose numbers had surged under Labor. Mr Tunny found that in the 12 months to March 31, 11,700 new positions had been added, nearly twice the rate of population growth to which expansion of the public service had formerly been pegged.

Beyond saying Queensland needed more, not fewer frontline personnel such as police, nurses and ambulance officers, Mr Janetzki would not be drawn on whether overall public service numbers would come down under the LNP through staff freezes or other non-coercive measures. On reinstating the nexus between population and public service growth, he said: “That was a fiscal principle from two iterations ago.”

Queensland’s triple-A credit rating was a political touchstone for the resource-rich state until it was lost in the wake of the 2007-08 global financial crisis, after Labor governments under Peter Beattie and Ms Bligh ramped up borrowing. Western Australia and NSW are the only states that retain the triple-A.