Queensland budget: It’s theelection, stupid, not the economy
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick on Tuesday. Picture: Dan Peled / NewsWire
·6:34AM JUNE 12, 2024
Ifthere is any doubt Cameron Dick’s fifth budget is about holding onto power just look at the expiry date in the handouts to voters.
Morethan $3.5bn in electricity rebates, 50c fares on public transport, discountedcar registrations and kids’ sports vouchers all kick in just before the October26 election and fade away in the months after the poll.
Dick,slick and nimble as ever on his feet, framed his latest budget as squarely aimed at helping struggling Queenslanders with cost-of-living relief, even if it means going into deficit and further debt at a time when coal royalties are pumping the state’s revenue streams to record highs.
Butthe short-life of the measures, and the fact he held off delivering them untilnow – despite inflation taking off in 2022 – undercuts the Treasurer’s denialthat this budget is all about winning back voters.
Tuesday’s budget was the government’s last set play before the campaign, with the billion-dollar sweeteners and political framing brazen even by Queensland standards.
Dickopened the budget sell by declaring it was being delivered by “a new governmentwith a new approach”.
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Forgetthat he sat around the cabinet table with Premier Steven Miles and formerpremier Annastacia Palaszczuk over three terms, and that the only change in thegovernment was in the leadership.
Thelooming election, Dick said, should not be a “referendum on the past nineyears” but about the “competing visions for our state”.
It’swishful thinking.
Dickand Miles know it is the government’s record that has largely driven voters tothe opposition and its small target strategist, leader David Crisafulli.
It’swhat led the unions and caucus to turn on Palaszczuk, pressuring her to quitlast December as polling showed her personal popularity – which helped deliverLabor three election wins on the trot – tanking.
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Premier Steven Milessays the State Budget delivers on his promise to listen to Queenslanders.
Andboth Miles and Dick seem intent on not only keeping voters from looking at thegovernment record, but scrubbing any connection to the former premier.
Eversince the leadership change, the pair have been at pains to distance themselvesfrom Palaszczuk.
Hername is rarely uttered publicly by Dick or Miles, who is still touted as the “new”premier in media releases and ads six months after taking the top job.
Evenat the budget, Miles had a veiled little dig at Palaszczuk when spruiking theboost to health funding, saying he and Dick (both previous health ministers)could “only wish to get 11 per cent” increases when they held the portfolio.
Withsuccessive polling indicating a defeat for Miles in October, and the governmentlosing a seat in a by-election this year in the Labor heartland, the budgethandouts are probably too late.
ButDick is right in that elections should be a contest of ideas.
Lastweek, Crisafulli committed to adopting Labor’s budget sight unseen.
Itwas a lazy and risk-averse pledge from a leader wanting to fall over the linewith Labor’s failings rather than winning over voters with a plan of his own.
It’sthe same strategy that first won power for Palaszczuk against the unpopularCampbell Newman.
Butit led to an average government with no real mandate.
