- An employment budget that forecasts increased unemployment
- An infrastructure budget that forecasts record low infrastructure
spending
- A debt reduction budget that has debt increasing
- A budget that sees public service expenses increasing six times the population rate
- A budget that sees taxes and charges increasing at twice the inflation
rate
True to form, the incompetent Palaszczuk Labor Government has delivered another budget of broken promises propped up by raids on public servants superannuation and increased taxes.
Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said today’s Palaszczuk-Pitt Budget confirmed Labor was incapable of delivering a sustainable long-term economic plan or creating jobs for Queensland.
“Labor promised a budget that would deliver jobs but unemployment will rise, they promised a budget that would pay down debt but instead debt will rise, and they promised record infrastructure but have slashed infrastructure funding to a record low.
“Last budget, Labor shifted $4 billion of debt onto government-owned enterprises – this time they’ve had to resort to stealing $4 billion from public servant’s superannuation to pay for their promises.
“Premier Palaszczuk and her clueless Treasurer only know how to deliver short-term sugar hits that will fail to deliver the jobs and services that Queenslanders need now and for the future. What happens when they run out of hollow logs to raid?”
“In typical Labor fashion, taxpayers will also be forced to pay an additional $3.1 billion in public servants’ wages over the next four years.
”Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson said even with Labor’s raid on public servants’ superannuation Labor was still spending $2.3 billion less on capital purchases over the next four years than the LNP committed in government.
“This is a budget of raids, rip-offs and write downs,” Mr Emerson said.
“Budgets should boost business confidence, infrastructure investment and jobs but the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s budget fails on all counts.
“First Queenslanders were told there was a $4.7 billion budget black
hole, then Pitt broke his promise not to impose a foreign investor tax by slugging them with a 3 per cent surcharge and now it’s confirmed he’ll raid $4 billion from the defined benefits fund.
“Labor has broken its promise to repay net debt by increasing it by more than $7 billion since last budget, with total debt forecast to rise to $78.9 billion by 2019-20.
“Since Labor delivered its last budget 20,000 full-time jobs have been lost in Queensland, youth unemployment has sky-rocketed in cities like Cairns and Townsville, but this government’s only plan for jobs is to create more for public servants.
“Under this do-nothing government, all Queenslanders can expect is a shrinking domestic economy and no credible plan to boost jobs or infrastructure, proving Annastacia Palaszczuk, Curtis Pitt and Labor can’t be trusted to manage Queensland’s finances.”
Labor’s budget cuts by portfolio include:
- Department of Education and Training $191.2 million
- Department of Transport and Main Roads $102.8 million
- Queensland Police $38.1 million
- Department of Justice and Attorney-General
$28.3 million
- Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing $6.6 million
- Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation $5.9 million
- Department of the Premier and Cabinet $5.1 million
- Department of Agriculture and Fisheries $5 million budget year and forward estimates
- Queensland Treasury $4.5 million
- Department of State Development $2.9 million
- Department of Environment and Heritage Protection $2.7 million
- Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning $2.7 million
- Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders $1 million budget year and forward estimates
- Department of Energy and Water Supply $0.9 million
- Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and Commonwealth Games $0.4 million
