BUDGET A REAL PAIN
IF, like many North Queenslanders, you own a car and a boat and work in the private sector, the latest Queensland budget is a kick in the ribs with a steel- capped boot.
If you thought making ends meet is hard now, be prepared for a whole lot more pain.
Once again, we have a government whose only solution to everything is to dip into taxpayers’ pockets.
Registration and licence costs have ballooned by 15 per cent over four years – twice the rate of inflation.
This is most keenly felt in the fishing- mad North where a large proportion of people have to pay car, boat and trailer rego.
For a six- cylinder dual- cab ute, you’re looking at close to $ 1000.
A trailer might set you back $ 110 and a boat about the same.
One bloke I know – a car and motorbike lover who also pays his kids’ rego – has to pay for 11 registrations. As reported this week, Queensland’s $ 1.7 billion annual interest bill on debt is the same as what the Government reaps in registration charges.
People with fully functioning brains would look at this equation and say: “Cut debt and they should be able to cut rego charges.”
But common sense is nonexistent in government bureaucracies obsessed with process, protected by unions and addicted to spending.
In an age when privatesector workers’ wages are barely, if at all, keeping up with inflation, any increase in mandatory government charges is a hammer blow.
A big cause of the incessant need to increase revenue is the public service.
Next year’s public service wages bill will blow out to almost $ 1 billion for a sector that has grown by 20,000 people to nearly 260,000 since 2015.
We all have to tighten our belts while the Government doesn’t. For example, train drivers in Queensland last year earned an average $ 130,000. To put this into perspective, airline pilots earn a base of $ 101,000.
With Labor in charge, public- sector unions get to run amok with their outlandish pay demands.
Then when conservatives get in and d try to make much- needed cuts, the unions convince voters the new government is attacking families or other such rot.
Thus, we get locked in a cycle of an ever- growing public sector with overly generous wage growth which all has to be paid for by us.
Another driver of government greed is debt.
On top of this, our Labor overlords are thanking us for re- electing them by levying five new taxes, including the equal- highest gambling tax in the country which will make it harder for punters to win as bookies manipulate their odds to decrease liabilities.
If the punters are getting even less of a fair go, they’ll stop punting, less money will be ploughed into the racing industry and jobs will be lost. What about power prices? The LNP Opposition claims the ALP reaped $ 1.241 billion in profits from its power companies.
Imagine the instant relief to all if the Government halved that compulsory profit take? But it won’t.
Businesses especially are groaning under power bills.
One North Queensland pub pays $ 5- 7000 a month just to keep the lights on.
That means the publican has to sell 2000 beers a month before he even thinks about paying staff, buying stock and paying himself.
One thing that could – or should – be considered to boost revenue without slamming citizens even more is encouraging mining.
Queensland made $ 1.3 billion more in mining royalties this past financial year than in 2015- 16, so why wouldn’t Annastacia Palaszczuk roll out the welcome mat for more mines?
To be fair, she has approved a swath of new mining exploration permits recently, but if this results in a revenue boom, Palaszczuk must ease the pressure on taxpayers.
With more mines ( Adani, anyone?), we could pay off debt faster, and give a shot in the arm to areas of the North screaming out for jobs.
The LNP puts Outback youth unemployment at 54 per cent, which could be alleviated with more mines.
If only the ALP had the spine to stand up to environmental terrorists, everyone could enjoy more money in their pockets and less stress.