Queenslanders will be handed billions in cost-of-living relief, including massive electricity rebates and slashed public transport fees, despite the state’s deficit blowing out to $2.6bn.
Treasurer Cameron Dick handed down his fifth budget on Tuesday, turning particular focus on the government’s efforts to bring down household bills despite conceding the deficit blowout just months before the state election.
The record $11.217bn in concessions will comprise electricity bill rebates, lower public transport fares and slashed rego costs in addition to support for first-home buyers.
Another $1.3bn in community safety has been allocated to police services, including funding for another 900 officers.
Queensland Health will be handed $28.9bn to fund a multitude of hospital upgrades and a plan to tackle ambulance ramping all over the state.
Queenslanders are due to go to the polls in just five months – with Labor significantly trailing the LNP.
But Mr Dick said people would be asked to make a choice about their future and not “express an opinion about the past” when they go to the polls.
In his budget address, he said residents of the state deserve “nothing less” from anyone who wants to lead.
“Queenslanders deserve to make choices about their lives,” Mr Dick said.
“But in recent times many have been robbed of those choices by the ever-present constraints of global and national cost-of-living pressures.
“For many Queenslanders, the only choice has been which bill to pay next.
“(This budget) delivers what Queenslanders deserve.”
But in a statement responding to the budget opposition treasury spokesman David Janetski called it a budget “for the next four months”, not the next four years.
“Today’s budget has exposed Labor does not have the right priorities for Queensland’s future,” he said.
“We are paying a high price for Labor’s failures in health, housing, youth crime and cost of living.”.
Mr Janteszki said the Miles government had accrued “record” taxes and debt despite “revenue rivers of gold”.
“Queenslanders deserve a government focused on the right priorities for our state’s future, not one that is single-mindedly focused on re-election,” he said.
“We are paying a high price for Labor’s failures in health, housing, youth crime and cost of living.”
Deb Frecklington, the party’s former leader and current LNP spokeswoman for energy and cost of living, said Labor had failed to deliver structural relief in the budget.
“Instead of a long-term plan, at the heart of this budget is more of the same from a decade old Labor Government that can’t be trusted,” she said in her own statement.
“Queenslanders have never struggled more with the cost of living than they are under this bad Labor government.
“After a decade of inaction, Labor wants Queenslanders to forget their cost-of-living failures on the eve of an election.”
Of the major features, train, bus and rail fares will be slashed to a 50c fee over a six-month trial, which the government says aims to ease cost-of-living pressures and the traffic gridlock plaguing the state’s roads.
It’s set to cost $150m from the budget.
Queenslanders are getting an additional $1000 knocked off their power bills, funded by royalties collected by the state from the coal and gas sector.
That figure is in addition to a federal $300 rebate being paid quarterly.
The cost of rego payments will also be discounted by 20 per cent, while the threshold for the first-home owner concessions on stamp duty will increase to $700,000.
Mr Dick said Treasury estimated the combined effect of cost-of-living measures would reduce Brisbane’s CPI growth over 2024-25 by 1¼ percentage points.
“That is forecast to reduce Brisbane CPI growth for the year to just 2 per cent,” he said.
The government expects to return to an operating surplus of $564m for the current 2023-24 financial year.
Mr Dick said a $2.6bn deficit was forecast for the 2024-25 financial year.
“If a deficit is the price to be paid to provide a nation-leading cost-of-living relief, then that is the price we are willing to pay,” he said.
Growth in taxation revenue would also be offset by an expected decline in royalties, along with the relief measures outlined in the budget, Mr Dick said.
The state’s progressive coal royalty system, which delivered an additional $5.8bn to Queenslanders last year, is forecast to deliver a further $3.6bn this financial year.
However, the budget papers state the impact of these royalties are forecast to decrease “significantly” over the forward estimates as coal prices normalise to around $1.3bn in 2024–25.
Earlier in the week, Nationals leader David Littleproud lamented the government’s approach, equating it to a “closing down” sale in Queensland.
“They’re throwing money like there’s no tomorrow, trying to subsidise their way into an election,” he told Sky News Australia on Monday.
“But ultimately that’s going to run out.”
Mr Crisafulli is due to give his budget reply speech later.
He initially agreed to support the budget measures without having read them – meaning projects in this budget will still be funded should his party win the election on October 26.
The budget cash splash is widely being seen as an attempt from the Miles government to claw back support to help Labor to in a fourth term.
Labor is heading for a crushing defeat, with a RedBridge poll revealing the party trails the LNP 43-57.
Labor’s primary vote is down to 28 per cent – a margin just above its disastrous 2012 result where the party was left with only seven seats in government.
The LNP’s primary vote is sitting around 47 per cent.
Massive funds pumped into health, capital works
A four-year $107.262bn capital works program would underpin the “record” increase in Queensland’s population, Mr Dick said.
That includes $10bn in transport infrastructure over the financial year, including $786m to train manufacturing workers in Maryborough, in central Queensland, and $514m to continue the construction of the Cross River Rail project.
Another $500m will go towards the Logan and Gold Coast Faster Rail project and another $308m will be pumped into the third stage of the Gold Coast’s light rail.
“This is the largest annual investment in capital works in Queensland’s history,” Mr Dick said.
“A record $19bn, or almost 70 per cent of this capital program, will be invested outside the Greater Brisbane region, supporting around 50,000 jobs.”
In addition, $28.9bn has been pumped into health to supply 2200 additional overnight beds at health centres across the state.
It marks a 10.6 per cent rise in operating funding for Queensland Health.
Free meningococcal B vaccines will be handed to infants, children and teenagers eligible under the program.
New hospitals will be funded in Bundaberg, Coomera and Toowoomba along with expansions to 11 other hospitals – including the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.
“A strong health system supports a healthy population,” Mr Dick explained.
“And a healthy population means higher labour productivity and stronger economic growth.”
A $1.3bn boost to frontline police services will include $52.3m to support victims of crime through a response program and $2.8m for the Victim Liaison Service, which connects victims and their families with the prosecution during court proceedings.
Of the $21bn being allocated for education, $1.274bn will go towards major changes to schools, including upgrades across the state.
Another 30,000 free TAFE places will be allocated for 2024 through to 2026.
2024 Queensland state budget cost-of-living relief:
• Half-price Airtrain tickets to and from Brisbane Airport for six months from August 5
• $200 FairPlay vouchers available from July 1 to help Queensland children and young people between the ages of 5-17 to participate in sport
• First-home concession – eligibility for the first-home concession will be extended to homes with a dutiable value up to $800,000