Queensland budget gains reaction from industry

Local Government Association of Queensland president Mark Jamieson said while councils welcomed the budget spend on First Nations housing and grants, safe and reliable drinking water, biosecurity and funding to reform and improve their integrity framework, they will be let down to see that critical support for Works for Queensland, roads and other programs have been left out.

"Just 10 days' worth of the government's $5.7 billion extra progressive coal royalties earnings would have covered these community priorities but they have instead been ignored," he said.

Cr Jamieson said regional roads funding received a tiny top up - the first since 2015 - but was going backwards in real terms.

While the budget contains youth crime measures, the LGAQ will be seeking more information for members, and advocating for regional benefits from the significant amounts of funding directed to the Olympics and Paralympics.

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KAP leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter called for a radical rethink of Queensland's future budgets and the introduction of a Western Australia-styled "Royalties for Regions" program.

He said the government acknowledged booming resource prices and record-high royalties saved its bottom line, but failed to acknowledge the origin of that wealth, from north and regional Queensland.

Treasurer Cameron Dick this week delivered a budget surplus of $12.3 billion.

"As has long been the case, regional and North Queensland make the money, and Brisbane happily spends it - they've committed us to their $62 billion intermittent power plan, their $6.3 billion Cross River Rail and their Olympics, which we are now estimating will cost taxpayers around $20 billion," Mr Katter said.

"They're spending a mind-boggling $14 billion to build one of Australia's most expensive renewable energy projects, the Borumba pumped hydro project in south-east Queensland, which is basically a subsidy for Australia's biggest battery, which is notably not a generator.

"You would be hard-pressed to find other examples throughout history of such gross economic inequity and injustice of the distribution of public wealth amongst the people - in Queensland regions make the money, then the south east spends it on itself."

The Queensland Resources Council said the budget had exposed the government's serious miscalculation in its snap decision to impose the world's highest coal royalty tax.

The budget shows the government will collect a record $15.3 billion from coal royalties - including $5.7 billion from new royalty taxes.

"There has to be a balance between what the Queensland government takes from the resources sector and what it leaves to encourage companies to continue to invest the capital required to get large-scale, multi-decade projects off the ground," chief executive Ian Macfarlane said.

"The reason Queenslanders are benefiting today from the resources sector is because of investment decisions made years, if not decades, ago by resources companies which saw Queensland as a safe and secure place in which to invest.

"That long-held perception of Queensland has now changed, for the worse."

According to the government, an injection of more than $50 million will boost exploration initiatives in the state's resources sector while also helping make the state's landscapes more resilient.

The $21 million Frontier Gas Exploration grants program is a new initiative that will help drive exploration for new gas reserves in the Bowen and Galilee Basins over the next two years.

Nearly $10 million of additional funds will be invested over the next four years under Queensland's vegetation management framework with a focus on working with landholders on the government's commitment to achieve emission reductions targets.

The government said water security and good jobs was a focus of the 2023-24 Budget, with more than $1.7 billion to be invested, including a further $440 million, on top of the $100 million already committed, to progress the upgrade and raising of the Burdekin Falls Dam by two metres.

That will provide up to 150,000 megalitres of new water allocations, but KAP federal MP Bob Katter described it as a "robbery" of the river's water, saying due to the dam's shallow depth, increasing the height would make it susceptible to higher evaporation rates.

On the contrary, Hell's Gates would be a "deeper pond," leading to lower evaporation, he said.

"They are cold-bloodedly destroying the Burdekin River, the life blood of North Queensland. This will take water away from Hell's Gates, from the dream to take a small amount of water from the coastal stream and turn North and central Queensland's richest soils into one of the biggest food bowls."

The budget has $116.4 million this year to continue pre-construction activities for Paradise Dam prior to major construction works commencing late next year, and an increased investment of $568.9m in Rookwood Weir to $568.9 million.

For the state's primary producers, the budget includes up to $48.5 million over three years in the Drought Assistance and Reform package, and $100 million over two years allocated for loans.

In the biosecurity sphere, more than $21.7 million will be invested over five years, and $2.8 million each year thereafter, for action against current and emerging plant pests and diseases.

This is in addition to $22 million over 5 years and $2.5 million each year thereafter already announced.

The government has created 15 new permanent jobs within Biosecurity Queensland to identify and manage biosecurity threats.

Shadow Agriculture Minister Tony Perrett expressed serious concern that this budget was not addressing the many challenges faced by the agricultural sector.

"Unacceptably DAF's appropriation revenue has been cut when compared to the actual spend in 2022-23, and cut when compared to the budgeted spend in 2022-23, adjusted for CPI," he said.

"Mark Furner has cut the biosecurity spend from $231 million to $151 million, and is closing down the Cape York Biosecurity Facility in Coen, at a time biosecurity threats to our state have never been so serious.

"Queensland's fisheries and forestry industry development funding has also been cut at a time there is a chronic timber shortage and Queensland's fishers have never felt more betrayed by Labor.

"Disappointingly biosecurity staff numbers will not increase from last financial year.

"Concerningly, there's no mention of research and development, or AgTech, at a time industry is crying out for leadership.

"There's also no increased drought assistance for Queensland primary producers.

"Bizarrely, the chaotic Labor Government is also now spending $4.8 million to, "finalise long-term decisions on the future of assets formerly held by the Queensland Agricultural Training Colleges.." Minister Mark Furner cruelly shut down the colleges and we are still paying for that decision."