WESTERN Queensland mayors were more interested in making Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls aware of ongoing service and infrastructure needs for their communities than they were in helping out with debt reduction strategies when he visited Longreach on Tuesday.
The round table meeting there and at Emerald later in the day were the latest in a series being conducted around the state, touted as listening opportunities to find ways to reduce the state’s $80 billion debt.
While stressing a need to bring debt down before any big infrastructure developments could be contemplated, mayors from Barcoo, Barcaldine, Blackall-Tambo and Longreach emphasised the limited capacity they had to cope with further economic blows.
Mr Nicholls took this as an indication of a preference for sales or leases of government-owned assets as a debt reduction measure rather than reductions in government services or increases in taxes and charges.
He said that while no final decision had been made and the government would not sell any business before going to the people, infrastructure such as CS Energy and Stanwell Energy power providers, the Ports of Gladstone and Townsville, and the industrial assets of Sunwater were likely targets for asset sales.
The government would retain ownership of energy distributors such as Ergon Energy, Powerlink and Energex but seek opportunities for private sector investment under an asset sale scenario.
Longreach accountant Bill Ringrose was invited to attend the meeting and told Mr Nicholls there was a fear of asset sales in small communities because of resulting job losses under private restructures.
He said the 14 job cuts announced by rail freight operator Aurizon in Hughenden recently would have the same impact as 1400 people losing their jobs in Townsville.
Mr Nicholls said the government would need to decide what people were comfortable with and what would drive jobs.
“Sales give businesses opportunities to expand in regional areas,” he said.
“And selling assets guarantees we can put more money into services across Queensland, but we can’t do this unless we pay our debt down.”
The aim is to reduce debt by $25b and free up $1.25b of interest payments for spending around the state.
Mr Nicholls was carefully questioned about where resultant cost savings would be spent and could only say that it would be a matter of judgement of the government looking at the regional infrastructure backlog.
“You’ve got fierce advocates like Vaughan Johnson who call attention to rural needs,” he added.
Mr Johnson, the Member for Gregory hosted the meeting at Longreach on Tuesday.
Sally Cripps
Journalist
Journalist
