Queensland’s booming economy should be a budget blueprint for the rest of the country as the state continues to bask in a historic surplus.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the $12.3 billion (US$8.3 billion) surplus for 2022/23 was the largest for any state or territory, and Queenslanders deserve a slice of the record revenue generated by a booming resource sector.
“Every jurisdiction will make its own decision about how it seeks to raise revenue, but in the budget last year, when we saw those extraordinary historic prices for coal up to $900 Australian a tonne for Queensland steelmaking coal, I formed the view as treasurer that Queenslanders deserved a fair share,” the treasurer told the ABC on June 13.
“Just a slice of that for their hard work and their diligence and effort during COVID and to help address some of the pressures that have come out of COVID, particularly healthcare, but also to invest in the infrastructure that a growing state needs.”
The Palaszczuk government last year introduced progressive royalty rates that have brought in billions more in revenue amid soaring coal and gas prices and super profits for miners.
Residents are basking in the record-breaking surplus after the state government delivered a budget firmly focused on the cost of living relief.
“Queenslanders get a benefit and, in this budget, the biggest cost of living relief package of any state or territory government,” the treasurer boasted.
“We’ve got the biggest hospital building program in the country - we need to give back to Queenslanders ... at a time when the cost of living is difficult.”
The increase to the electricity bill rebate brings it to $550 for all households - up from $175 - and more than $1000 for eligible concession holders.
The rebates mean low-income households, such as pensioners, might pay nothing for electricity in the next financial year.
The other big-ticket item was $645 million to provide 15 hours a week of free kindergarten for all four-year-olds over four years.
The treasurer said the government was “very confident” its splurge on the cost of living rebates would not risk adding to inflation.
“The information and advice to us is very clear from the Reserve Bank, from the federal Treasury and from our own Treasury here in Queensland (that) taking the pressure down for Queensland families by reducing electricity bills, in fact, does not add to inflation, it takes the pressure off inflation,” he told Seven’s Sunrise.
Dick also defended the budget’s housing measures following criticism from social service groups that the funding does not go far enough to address the shortage of social and affordable housing.
He said the electricity rebate would help Queenslanders struggling with rising housing costs and pointed to “a very significant program of construction for new social and affordable housing that has gone up about more than 60 percent in this budget”.
