Paying for Budget ruse
WITH the Queensland Labor government’s first Budget due on July 14, the community understands the Budget must address the complex issues of debt, deficit, infrastructure development, the cost of living, business confidence and employment.
This Budget will be critical to Queensland’s future.
Queensland has a debt of $ 80 billion, costing over $ 4 billion in yearly interest.
Real action must be taken to have a surplus budget and reduce our debt and interest costs.
Real action must be taken to restore our AAA credit rating.
This cannot be achieved in one budget, but it will never be achieved unless a start is made.
Queensland has a debt and deficit problem that will threaten our future if not addressed.
This state’s debt to revenue ratio is 140 per cent. The next highest is NSW at 84 per cent.
Queensland’s debt per capita is $ 15,510; NSW is $ 8700. The NSW budget for 2015/ 16 is in surplus and it has a AAA credit rating.
The three local state MPs declared in their TB letter of June 13 that Labor will repay debt, not sell assets and there will be no cuts to jobs or services. My belief is their letter demonstrated Labor’s stated commitment to “our economic future” is a game of words, a ruse that has no purpose but to achieve a political outcome.
If the 2014/ 15 Budget is a ruse, all Queenslanders will pay the penalty for political expedience over the next three years.
Our three MPs say Labor will pay down debt. They say: “This will enable us to pay down general government debt”.
General government debt excludes debts of the governmentowned corporations ( GOCs).
The Palaszczuk government will claim it has cut the $ 46 billion of general government debt by shifting debt to the GOCs. Our total debts will, in fact, increase.
Another claim is Labor will use two- thirds of the returns from the GOCs to repay the general government debt by placing those funds in a debt repayment trust.
Labor claims the GOCs provide returns of $ 2 billion annually. If true, this allows yearly debt reduction of $ 1.3 billion.
The proposed annual debt repayments for the first four years is $ 100 million. That is 5 per cent, not two- thirds ( 66 per cent).
The deception is that Labor will place the funds in its “debt trust” and then use those funds elsewhere, while claiming it has reduced debt. It is a ruse.
The only funds that should come from the GOCs is the surplus profits.
Labor will strip the GOCs of every dollar it can, force the GOCs to increase their debts and that will increase the future costs of all services including power. This is not a new Labor ruse; Beattie and Bligh did this for years.
The proof will be in this year’s Budget. These economic ruses may be deemed clever politics by some but, in truth, they betray all Queenslanders.