The hot property market lifted the state’s budget last year. This time coal royalties are forecast to boost Queensland’s bottom line.
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick’s Wednesday budget update will show a multibillion-dollar coal revenue boost driven by high prices and higher royalty tiers.
“In extraordinary times ... this is an extraordinary result,” the Treasurer tells parliament.
The state government quietly boosted the funding of two state watchdogs hit hard by COVID-driven workloads,but calls from other accountability agencies went unanswered in Tuesday’s budget.
The Queensland government narrowly avoided the distraction of budget day protests from frontline workers negotiating wage rises,as it lifted a years-long hiring freeze on other positions.
The new levy,revealed in Tuesday’s state budget,will generate ongoing funding for mental health services in the state expected to total more than $1.4 billion across the next four years alone.
The budget papers show the building boom is bigger than the 2016 flurry of apartment construction in Brisbane - but not everything can be done at once.
Coal companies will bear the brunt of Queensland’s revenue increases,with a sliding royalties scale to help fund the state’s huge health and infrastructure spend.
As coal and property prices soar,Treasurer Cameron Dick faces twin revenue windfalls — and their potential benefit to the state — as he hands down the Palaszczuk government’s eighth budget on Tuesday.
Treasurer Cameron Dick announced the outlay on Sunday while marking a major milestone for the Cross River Rail project.
Treasurer Cameron Dick last forecast a budget deficit of $2.4 billion for 2022-23 but is now confident of a much smaller number.