Labor cooks books with debt- shift trick Budget

TWO weeks ago, Treasurer Curtis Pitt announced Labor’s ridiculous plan to shift public sector debt onto the books of Queensland’s governmentowned corporations.

Last week, Treasurer Pitt hands down a Budget which includes this absurd “debt hospital pass”, indicating Labor has no idea how it will fund its election commitments.

Offloading public debt – left over from the Beattie/ Bligh Governments – onto these GOC’s was never part of Labor’s pre- election financial plan.

Mr Pitt’s claim is that this manoeuvre reduces public debt. That’s like making a home loan payment with your credit card and suggesting you’re reducing your personal debt.

Of course, we should all remember that Labor and Mr Pitt stated that they would rely on revenues from GOC’s to pay down Labor debt. This plan is now in tatters.

Thanks to Labor, these GOC’s will now have to service a much bigger debt and the interest on that debt, increasing costs to Queensland consumers.

This is the type of “magic pudding” economics that we have come to expect from the Palaszczuk Government.

ANDREW CRIPPS MP, Member for Hinchinbrook.