Queensland election: Liberal National Party assigns no funds for energy plan

Queensland’s planned renewable energy transition will be delayed under a LNP government, with David Crisafulli failing to budget a single dollar to his promise of building smaller pumped hydro projects to meet the state’s baseload power needs.

LNP Treasury spokesman David Janetzki. Picture: Liam Kidston

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Queensland’s planned renewable energy transition will be delayed under a Liberal National Party government, with David Crisafulli failing to budget a single dollar to his promise of building smaller pumped hydro projects to meet the state’s baseload power needs.

The long-awaited costing statements of the LNP, released just two days before the state election, revealed debt would surge by $46.7bn in the next four years, remaining relatively unchanged from the borrowing projected in Labor’s big-spending June budget.

LNP Treasury spokesman David Janetzki said the party, which is the favourite to win Saturday’s election, would fund its $7.1bn worth of commitments by cutting back spending on external consultants and axing Labor’s proposed Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project.

After voting to support Labor’s target of slashing 75 per cent of carbon emissions by 2035 and touting its “credible plan” for a transition to green energy, the LNP has no funding for the planning or delivery for new renewable projects.

Under intense questioning, Mr Janetzki confirmed the state would invest in pumped-hydro projects by mid-2028, with exact figures to be revealed in his first budget.

Asked how much taxpayer dollars would be going into small pumped hydro in the next four years, Mr Janetzki said: “There are proponents out there that are interested, but you would understand we can’t deal in hypotheticals.

“Those negotiations would have to take place, you’d have to find what sites and we’re not in a position to do that as yet.”

Mr Janetzki said there was commercial interest in pumped hydro but they would not all be privately owned, confirming there would “need to be a joint mix of ownership”.

LNP Treasury spokesman David Janetzki at Parliament House. Picture: Liam Kidston

The LNP has committed to progressing Labor’s $14.2bn Borumba project near Gympie in southeast Queensland.

Released after the blackout on political advertising was imposed on Wednesday night, the LNP’s costings promise to return the budget to a $1.18bn surplus in 2026-27 and $2.77bn in 2027-28.

While the Labor government plans to borrow $176.25bn to fund its election commitments, the LNP’s promises would be paid for by capping growth in consultancy spending.

Labor is projecting smaller surpluses than the LNP, which are forecast to amount to $72m in 2026-27 and $1.83bn the following year.

Treasurer Cameron Dick said he had been honest about state debt needing to rise in order to fund Labor’s election commitments, including 50c public transport fares, $1.4bn for primary school lunches and $1000 energy rebates for all Queensland households.

“Through this campaign, we have been absolutely upfront with Queenslanders about the cost of our election commitments,” Mr Dick said.

“Real-time costing of every single election commitment, and being absolutely upfront that our commitments will predominantly be paid for by debt.”

Under an LNP government, debt would balloon to $171.3bn by mid-2028, under Labor it would reach $176bn.

Mr Janetzki said the LNP would create a new in-house consulting service, modelled off federal Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ Australian Government Consulting.

The new $87.5m government unit would hire about “40 to 50” staff to bring public sector consulting in-house and starve the big four – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – of work.

“So Jim Chalmers did something that Cameron Dick hasn’t done in standing up Australian Government Consulting, and in his first year the federal Treasurer found $3bn in savings,” Mr Janetzki said.

“The Coaldrake Review was scathing of the government’s obsession with outsourcing work to the private sector and how this has eroded the public service.

“We’ve long argued that building capacity in the public service and empowering it to manage projects will drive down project overruns and ultimately reduce cost-of-living pressures for Queenslanders.”

Former Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake delivered a blistering review of the state’s public sector in 2022 that uncovered a culture tolerant of bullying, dominated by short-term political thinking and unwilling to give life to unfashionable points of view.

“Part of the problem is an identifiable loss of capacity in the public service which has been accelerated by what is now an over-reliance on external contractors and consultants,” Professor Coaldrake wrote in his final report.

Mr Dick said the LNP’s projected savings through a consultancy firm were a “fantasy” that outpaced reductions achieved at a federal level.

“It is inherently unbelievable that a state the size of Queensland can make more savings than the government of the Commonwealth of Australia … the LNP is trying to hoodwink Queenslanders,” he said.