Ballooning debt and deeper deficits. The Queensland treasurer says his mid-year budget update reveals the state’s finances are in a "dire" state. David Janetzki vowed to reduce the debt but didn't specifically say how. Labor says the figures aren't credible and have put the state's credit rating at risk.
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TVTranscript
00:00A new treasurer exposing the state's fiscal crisis.
00:06Today we reveal Labor's last budget update.
00:10A true state of Queensland's books.
00:13Or an exaggerated account.
00:15The LNP are cooking the books to create the worst possible set of numbers.
00:19The state's projected debt tipped to skyrocket from $172 billion to $218 billion by 2028.
00:29With debt per capita tracking to be the worst in the country, it is highly likely that we
00:33will not just have an outlook downgrade, but that it's highly likely we will have a rating
00:39downgrade.
00:40The LNP have juiced up the state's debt forecast, they've added expenses without any planning
00:45or business cases, and as a consequence, they've put our state's credit rating at risk.
00:51A $900 million surplus forecast for 2026-27 has turned into a likely $9 billion deficit.
01:00It is a serious challenge to return the budget to operating surplus.
01:05Despite that, government spending is set to increase by $30 billion more than previously
01:12forecast over the next four years.
01:15We're not going to have less health workers, less police, which would have been the case
01:20under Labor.
01:21They simply weren't funding the services that were necessary.
01:25The government's update paired with a pledge.
01:27Are we ruling out cuts to services?
01:30Yes, we are absolutely dedicated to delivering the services that Queensland needs.
01:35They can't deliver a surplus, they can't lower debt without cuts.
01:40In opposition, the LNP vowed debt would be lower under its governance.
01:45At the time, it was projected to be $172 billion.
01:50With this update, the goalposts have been shifted.
01:53We've set ourselves a mark here today at $217.8 billion.
01:58Ratings agency S&P says it'll take a few weeks to assess the impact on Queensland's credit
02:04rating.
02:05We don't want to lower the rating, for example, based off what we've seen today, if there's
02:10a politics at play.
02:11So over the next few weeks, we're going to be diving deeper into these data to figure
02:15out where the true story is.