Queensland treasurer makes no apologies for lack of budget sweeteners
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Version 0 of 1. The Newman government's third and final budget before next year's election is unlikely to cause Queenslanders to pop the champagne corks. But the treasurer, Tim Nicholls, has admitted he did not expect it to be popular and made no apologies for the lack of sweeteners in it while unveiling the details on Tuesday. "It is not a budget of big headlines or irresponsible spending sprees," he told parliament. "It is a budget that is right for the times." It is also a budget accompanied by a separate draft plan detailing the desire to sell or lease $33.6bn in public assets after the next election. Three-quarters of those sales will go towards reducing the state's $80bn debt. The other 25%, or $8.6bn, will be spent over six years to pay for infrastructure projects such as hospitals, roads and public transport. While there are no big-ticket items in the budget, Nicholls said there were also no new taxes or cuts to services because of previous cost cuts and better management of services. But he said the government was blindsided by the federal government's decision to axe a national partnership agreement that helped fund concessions for pensioners and seniors. It left a $223.2m funding black hole over four years which he said the state could not fill. The impacts would be felt on public transport, rates and electricity from 1 October, Nicholls said. "The concessions will still be quite substantial – they just won't be as high as they would otherwise have been," he said. Health and education have scored state funding increases of 6% and 7% respectively, but will also be affected by federal budget cuts. |