Queensland election: Palaszczuk’s debt plan may be news to Curtis Pitt

Palaszczuk commits Labor to firm plan to cut debt, in what could be a surprise to her Treasurer.

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt. Picture: Stewart McLean

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has committed Labor to delivering a firm plan in the next three days to cut the state’s nation-leading debt, in what could be a surprise to her Treasurer, Curtis Pitt.

On Monday, Mr Pitt struggled to articulate how debt would be reduced and told reporters he did not know if he would talk about debt when he released Labor’s costings this week. But a day later, Ms Palaszczuk locked him in to releasing a policy.

“That will all be released once all of our election commitments are on the table for the people of Queensland to see,” Ms Palaszczuk said in Rockhampton yesterday. “We will release our costings as well as our debt action reduction plan.”

Queensland’s total debt — which includes the borrowings of the state’s government-owned corporations — is forecast to hit $81 billion by 2020-21, but neither major party has told voters how it would significantly slash debt.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has not even committed to reducing debt, but instead says the Liberal National Party would “stabilise” debt if elected.

This week Mr Pitt said revenue from government-owned corporations would go into the government’s coffers and then be used to pay down debt.

However, the lion’s share of GOC dividends come from the state’s power companies. That money has already been committed to giving Queenslanders a $50 rebate on their power bills for two years and for other policies to reduce electricity prices.

The state’s latest budget papers show that in the next financial year, the dividends from the remaining water and port GOCs are forecast to be just $251 million — less than a quarter of the annual interest bill of $1.7bn for the state’s government-sector debt.

Ms Palaszczuk would not be drawn on whether she was satisfied with such a small fraction of the interest bill being reduced.

“I’m not going to deal in hypotheticals,” she said. “I will be waiting until we release all of our election commitments and they will be there, the full costings. Our election commitments are going to be fully funded, and they will be released.”

General government-sector debt — Labor’s preferred debt measure — has fallen by $12.8bn, from $45.8bn in 2014-15 in Mr Nicholls’s last mid-year financial update as treasurer to $33.7bn this financial year in the Palaszczuk government’s most recent budget.

Total government debt has also decreased over the same period, by $5.5bn from $77.5bn at the end of the Newman government to $71.98bn in the 2017-18 budget.

However, under both measures, debt is still forecast to rise under the Palaszczuk government’s watch.

In Labor’s first budget, general government-sector debt was $35.48bn in 2015-16 but is now forecast to rise to $41.2bn by 2020-21. Total debt over the same period will rise from $72.92bn in 2015-16 to $81.14bn in 2020-21.

Ms Palaszczuk yesterday defended the growth in Queensland’s public service and promised to spend $30m on an extra 100 firefighters and 12 fire communications officers if re-elected.