Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (12.05 am):
I rise to speak to the appropriation bills. Gympie was clearly not invited to the party. The only event we were invited to is to cough up more in extra taxes and future debt repayments while choking on the few crumbs thrown at us. We did not even get a slice of the cake. We have been served up rebadging, reannouncements and recycling of previous commitments. Funding for projects has disappeared. Life-saving road projects have been deferred for years. The government has even cynically claimed federal government funds as its own.
This budget is about imposing five new taxes on struggling families and businesses. It is about
borrowing more. Debt will soar. No-one should be proud of a new waste tax which will raise $1.32 billion;
a wagering tax of $367 million; a land tax of $311 million; a property investors’ tax of $132 million; and
car stamp duty of $100 million, for a grand total of $2.23 billion. Six months ago Queenslanders were
told this would only cost $491 million. It is not delivering on your promises when you deliberately mislead
the electorate. There are two choices: this is either calculated deceit or another example of how bad
the government is with numbers. The Premier said—
We have a very clear plan … about building the Queensland of the future that we need.
Obviously the plan is to max out the state’s credit card and dump the bill onto future generations.
It is grossly irresponsible. It steals from our children and their children. The interest bill alone for this
credit binge will cost $3.7 billion. For each and every year that equates to more than $7,000 a minute,
$420,000 an hour, $10 million a day and $71 million a week. Imagine what could be built and the jobs
that could be created with that money.
The road funding claims for Gympie are deliberately misleading. The government is obsessed
with Canberra. It either claims Canberra’s funding as its own or it blames Canberra for not doing the
state’s job. Its glossy brochure claims a $9 million investment out of a $12 million total spend for a
number of Bruce Highway intersection upgrades.
Mr Bailey interjected.
Mr PERRETT: It is misleading and completely untrue, Minister. It deceives the locals of Gympie.
The federal government is paying for 80 per cent of the cost and the state is paying 20 per cent.
Canberra has provided $9.6 million and the state is only contributing $2.4 million to the upgrades. It
requires a pretty clever sleight of hand for the state to turn its $2.4 million into $9 million. Some $750,000
has already been spent on the project. In a normal 80-20 split, $600,000 comes from Canberra and
only $150,000 from Queensland. Simple primary school subtraction would tell you that leaves $9 million
to come from Canberra funds. The $9 million clearly comes from Canberra, not Brisbane, yet the
government says the $9 million comes from them. That claim is a deliberate, cynical and blatant attempt
to mislead. That is disgraceful.
North of Gympie the notorious intersection of the Bruce and Wide Bay highways at Bells Bridge
is well known for fatalities and accidents. In May last year Canberra put up its $11.2 million share of the
$14 million cost to upgrade that intersection. I immediately wrote to the minister urging the government
to contribute its $2.8 million share. The same day as last year’s state budget the minister responded
saying, ‘Subject to approvals, the department anticipates construction will commence by the end of
2018.’
Documents now show that absolutely nothing will happen until 2021-22. The state’s $2.8 million
contribution appears on the books, but into the never-never. What calendar turns ‘the end of 2018’ into
the years 2021 and 2022? What deceit. To fix this would take not even a day’s payment of Queensland’s
interest bill. A fix would help save lives.
Then we have the Coondoo Creek Bridge, which needs upgrading. It is so unsafe that the speed
limit has been dropped to 60 kilometres per hour—on an open highway. The upgrade is critical to
improving motorist safety and boosting flood immunity for the region. It is on a state controlled road and
it is up to the state to deliver. Last year I secured a $10 million commitment from the LNP to upgrade
the bridge and approaches on Tin Can Bay Road to a 50-year flood immunity level. The local ALP
branch spokesman, Dan Stewart, agreed with the importance of the project, saying that ‘the Coondoo
Creek Bridge will be built’ and that the ‘minister had advised the branch that the bridge is being
designed’. Design is just a normal internal departmental process. Despite implying that it is underway,
there is nothing for this bridge.
In fact, earlier this year the minister tried to shift responsibility to Canberra. He wrote to me saying
that Queensland was unsuccessful in securing funds from the federal government’s Bridges Renewal
Program. It is not wrong to apply for funds—it would be a welcome windfall if someone else picked up
the tab—but ultimately funding responsibility stops at the minister’s desk, not Canberra. Let us be clear:
this type of local project is not usually funded by Canberra. This is not a game of monopoly. The
unsuccessful application is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It is a lazy cop-out to pretend that, because
the federal government is not paying, you do not have to do anything. This is on a state government
controlled road. The state does not score a free pass to sidestep its responsibility.
In Gympie this budget has been more about what is not there than what is there. The $826,000
to construct a new building at James Nash State High School is nothing extraordinary in a growing
region. The school has been maxed out for a while, with students on a waitlist. When a school is bursting
at the seams, funding a building to increase capacity is in line with normal government expenditure.
The $500,000 for the Abandoned Mine Lands Program at Rainbow Beach to manage sandmining
legacy issues is the same commitment made last year and the year before. On Wednesday the Deputy
Premier boasted—
Job creation remains our key focus in government. It is at the heart of everything we do.
What hypocrisy from a government that admits it has no intention to reduce unemployment rates!
Gympie’s local unemployment rate of 8.4 per cent is 2.3 per cent above the state average. In Wide Bay
unemployment is the worst in Australia, at 9.5 per cent. Our 29 per cent youth unemployment rate is
second only to that in the outback.
Taxpayers work very hard for their money and excessive government spending just trickles down
to struggling households and businesses. Gympie residents take home the second lowest pay packet
in Queensland. They cringe when told that private sector wage growth of 1.9 per cent is being
outstripped by the unsustainable wage increase for public servants at 2.7 per cent. The government will
spend almost $1 billion more on public servant wages next year after this year’s $1.7 billion increase,
most of it for senior executives. This is not for front-line workers.
The challenges for Gympie are addressing our high levels of unemployment, making our road
network safer, raising the education levels of our locals so that they have better chances of securing
meaningful work, differentiating ourselves from other regions in attracting tourists and providing quality
health and education facilities.
What Gympie did not get was a long list of infrastructure needs that would help address our
systemic problems of above-average unemployment and low socio-economic conditions. Two years
ago $300,000 was committed, out of a $1.3 million spend, to replace the Rainbow Beach auxiliary fire
and rescue station. Last year funds were redirected from the project to prop up the discredited previous
Labor member for Bundaberg. Since the 2016 commitment there has been nothing. There is nothing
about overtaking lanes on Tin Can Bay Road, advancing our hospital master plan, leasing the Gympie
TAFE building to the University of the Sunshine Coast, local traffic plan, upgrades of specific local roads
and bridges or support for groups which are propping up gaps in local health and disability services.
There is no recognition of Gympie’s central role in the forestry sector which helped it secure a $4 million
commitment from the LNP to establish a Queensland farm forestry centre.
The Local Government Association has called out the government for cuts to funds for weed and
feral animal control and for not allocating anything to assist councils to develop their required biosecurity
plans. There is no support for local government to continue feral pest and weed management. Councils
are having to front the $40 million bill to tackle this menace. We are losing the battle against declared
pests and weeds. I am extremely disappointed that the Labor Party has walked back from previous
investments and successes in delivering pest management, such as wild dog fencing. It has halved
future funding. No money has been allocated towards maintaining the rabbit fence. The impact of rabbits
costs Australian horticultural industries more than $1 billion a year. For all the talk of biosecurity
investment, this budget will cut three front-line departmental officers in 2018-19. These projects are
critical to the sector’s viability and productivity. They must be properly funded.
Queensland’s iconic $19 billion agricultural industry is vitally important for not only rural and
regional communities but also the entire state. A healthy and growing agricultural sector is integral to
our state’s fortunes and identity. Whether it is beef, tropical fruit, cotton or sugar cane, these industries
employ more than 315,000 Queenslanders throughout the food and fibre supply chain. It is no surprise
that there is nothing new for agriculture. Farmers are already reeling from the disastrous and unfair
vegetation management laws. Labor’s underwhelming and pathetic agricultural election policy shows it
does not know or care about farmers and the communities they support. The budget now confirms it.
Labor does not get it and does not care. The sector needs support and vision on how to grow.
While Minister Furner is happy to spruik an overall departmental funding increase, the real
numbers show that the increase in actual spend from last year is only a pitiful $11 million. Any increase
is welcome, but this is pathetic. It is crumbs compared to funds provided for Labor’s pet political projects
or areas. The science and environmental departments will get an increase of more than $265 million,
which includes funds for greenie mates. Environmental activists the Queensland Conservation Council
gets $1.8 million of taxpayers’ dollars. The same group lobbied and campaigned for the devastating
vegetation management laws.
During the LNP government, DAF staff levels were higher than they are today. This is despite
Labor’s swelling bureaucratic numbers in Brisbane, with an extra 25,000 public servants. One thing is
for sure: there is no influx of DAF staff in our regions.
Agriculture survives because of the resilience of those in the industry. It has nothing to do with
the government. The only extra funding farmers see is for suffocating higher regulation and red and
green tape—their go-slow regulations. There is nothing to compensate farmers for the unjust vegetation
management laws. There is no genuine relief for spiralling electricity and water costs. There is nothing
to redress the highest vehicle registration charges in the nation.
The government is only interested in Brisbane and not agriculture. Key agricultural advocacy
groups were scathing about Labor’s commitment to agriculture. The minister has failed. Despite
clocking up frequent flyer points and boasting he has travelled 15,000 kilometres, the minister has failed.
He is deaf to the industry and mute in cabinet. Queensland Farmers’ Federation CEO Travis Tobin said
the budget just does not stack up—
Mr Furner interjected.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER (Ms McMillan): Order! I ask that comments be directed through the chair.
Mr PERRETT: Queensland Farmers’ Federation CEO Travis Tobin said that the budget just ‘does
not stack up’ and he is ‘underwhelmed by a lacklustre state budget that lacks vision and overlooks the
important role agriculture plays in Queensland’s economy’. He said that the industry must start seeing
a higher priority and more strategic intent for agriculture. AgForce CEO Mike Guerin described it as
lacking vision and forgetting that agriculture is an economic pillar of the state. He said—
Overall, while the State Budget meets the minimal commitments the Palaszczuk Government made to agriculture, they have missed an opportunity to deliver a convincing vision for the industry to grow and prosper into the future.
The only money allocated to dealing with the fallout from the unfair vegetation laws is a menial
$4 million allocated towards a SLATS report. Farming groups like AgForce and QFF consistently called
for this data to be funded and collected before the kneejerk vegetation management laws were brought
in. This budget and the lack of support for farmers fits very neatly into the Labor green agenda to
suffocate rural and regional Queenslanders under the banner of environmentalism. Government
spending should be prudent and sensible. No matter where you live or what job you do, no-one needs
more tax hikes, increasing debt and higher unemployment.