Jacinta Allan rubbishes claims Queensland GST revenue is keeping Victoria's ‘hospital lights on'
A war of words has broken out between two state governments over GST revenue, after Queensland's treasurer claimed his state was keeping Victoria's 'hospital lights on'.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, hit back with blunt language on Monday morning, rubbishing the claims as 'just bullshit'.
Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email
In a speech in Brisbane on Monday the Queensland treasurer, David Janetzki, declared the sunshine state was 'stripped of $800m to reimburse New South Wales and Victoria for Covid-19 policy failures, five years after the fact'.
Changes to the allocation of tax revenues had left Queensland $5.3bn worse off over three years, he said, the 'largest redistribution' in the 25-year history of the GST.
'Queensland, with its own newly re-established Productivity Commission, is doing the heavy lifting on productivity; our gas is solving the southern states' energy crisis; and our GST revenue is going to Victoria to keep their hospital lights on,' he said.
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan said the complaints were 'nonsense'.
'Well, perhaps let me put it in language and in a way that the Queensland treasurer can understand – it's just bullshit, right?' she said, arguing that Victoria had historically been a net contributor.
'The Queensland budget's black hole – their $8bn-plus black hole – has got nothing to do with the circumstances here in Victoria. Now look, I don't want to quibble with another state. I don't want to quibble with the Queensland treasurer.'
Janetzki handed down his first budget last week. It forecast the state's total debt to top $200bn for the first time, partly due to a reduction in the state's GST allocation and declining coal revenue.
The Queensland treasurer said GST was being increasingly misallocated away from Queensland, partly due to a judgement that southern states had 'no or limited ability' to levy revenues from the gas industry.
'Every other state and territory gets a bigger share,' he said.
'Queensland's GST revenue in 2025–26 is only 28% higher than it was in 2015–16.
'In comparison, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are up 58%, 118% and 317%.'
Sign up to Breaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
Due to its lower population density, Brisbane is assessed as needing 'only a small fraction of the public transport infrastructure of Sydney and Melbourne', but the higher cost of delivering services in a more decentralised state is not taken into account, he said.
'They effectively assume the cost of serving a resident in Ballarat, 113km from Melbourne, is the same as the cost of serving a resident in Mackay, 968km from Brisbane,' Janetzki said.
Allan said it was wrong to compare Victoria and Queensland's public transport networks.
'If you want to compare public transport services, our world-class public transport service here in Melbourne, our huge network of buses, trains and trams is nothing compared to the public transport services you'll find in Brisbane,' she said.
'So I think this just shows what nonsense that claim is and we shouldn't be distracted by this nonsense. I'm not distracted by this nonsense that's coming from the Queensland treasurer, because I'm focused on making the investments in the infrastructure that matter'.
Janetzki made the speech at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch in Brisbane, in South Bank. He has been treasurer of Queensland since the Liberal National party won government at last October's election.
He also argued that Victoria's premier should be replaced by either him or Queensland premier David Crisafulli as the representative of states at a productivity roundtable in August called by the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
'I'm putting forward the case that it should be me or our premier which is at the table,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Why Anthony Albanese's radical plan for super will hit FIVE MILLION Aussies - not just 80,000 people Labor claims
Anthony Albanese 's plan to impose a new tax on super balances above $3million is likely to hit more than five million young Australians by retirement and not just 80,000 people as Labor claims, new analysis shows. The re-elected Labor government has the numbers with the Greens to get its Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions bill through the Senate when Parliament resumes next month. For the past two years, Labor has been arguing its plan to impose a new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains on super balances above $3million, before assets are sold, would affect the top 0.5 per cent of super savers or just 80,000 people. This would take the headline tax rate to 30 per cent, as the new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains was added on to the existing 15 per cent tax on earnings during the accumulation phase for all super accounts. Controversially, Labor isn't indexing it for inflation, arguing a future government could do so, like they periodically do for income tax rates. Wilson Asset Management has done new modelling showing this failure to index the new tax would affect 5.4million Australians, aged 18 to 34, by the time they turned 67 and were able to qualify for the age pension. 'All age cohorts under the age of 35 would be captured by the taxation on unrealised gains by retirement,' it said. The modelling showed Labor's new tax on super balances above $3million, known as tax Division 296, would even affect young Aussies with a zero super balance now. 'Our modelling indicates those aged 27 and under with a zero starting superannuation balance would exceed the unindexed cap before retirement,' it said. 'This has led to some characterising it as a "stealth tax", one that fundamentally alters the long-term investment incentives within superannuation.' A 19-year-old worker on a $54,088 salary, with zero super, would have $3.491million in retirement savings by 2071. Someone who is 20 now on a $66,768 salary and just $75,000 in super now would $5.197million in superannuation by 2072. Australians who studied longer before starting work would also be affected, with a 27-year-old worker with zero super, on a $90,315 salary now, like to have $3.098million in super by 2065. A typical income earner, now 34, with $180,000 in super would $3.5million in super by 2058. These Australians would face an annual tax bill in the hundreds of thousands depending how much their fund had growth during the previous financial year. Wilson Asset Management Management founder Geoff Wilson said young Australians would suffer in decades to come. 'The proposed tax on unrealised gains will not merely be a burden on individual superannuation accounts exceeding $3million, the failure to index means a 25- year-old who today starts with a zero-superannuation balance will be captured by the time they reach retirement,' he said. Wilson Asset Management warned that forcing those with a self-managed super fund to sell assets, to avoid going above the $3million threshold, would discourage investors from backing technology start-ups. 'The policy will constrict the flow of essential risk capital to the engine room of the Australian economy – our small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and innovative start-ups,' it said. 'It is a policy that threatens to undermine the foundations of Australia's economic dynamism by inhibiting the very companies that drive innovation, competition, and future growth.' Wilson Asset Management has released a new discussion paper called, 'Critiquing the Proposed Taxation on Unrealised Gains in Superannuation.' AMP last month warned Labor's plan to tax unrealised gains above the $3million threshold would affect the average 22-year-old worker in four decades' time but Wilson Asset Management's modelling shows the effects would capture workers aged 19 to 34 now. Compulsory employer super contributions are rising to 12 per cent on July 1.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Paul Keating says young Australians are guaranteed to have $3m in super by retirement – but not everyone agrees
Paul Keating says the 12% rate of compulsory super contributions from 1 July will 'guarantee' a young Australian joining the workforce today will have more than $3m in savings by the time they retire. A statement from the former prime minister celebrating the day 'the system finally matures' came with an implicit criticism of Labor's proposal to put an extra 15% tax on earnings from super balances over $3m. The Australian Financial Review has reported that the former prime minister has privately blasted as 'unconscionable' the Albanese government's decision to not adjust the threshold each year in line with inflation or wages growth. Keating on Monday wrote that the 12% rate would 'guarantee personal super accumulations in excess of $3m at retirement, reducing the call by the age pension on the Australian budget to 2% of GDP in the 2050s'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The former PM's claim goes further than other critics of the policy, which Treasury estimates will affect 80,000 individuals when it comes into effect. AMP's deputy chief economist, Diana Mousina, said an 'average' 22-year-old earning $98,000 today would breach the $3m limit by the time they retire at age 67. The Financial Services Council has estimated that 204,000 workers under the age of 30 will have super balances of more than $3m by the time they retire – still less than 5% of that group. None have said workers were 'guaranteed' to crack $3m in super savings. And while other tax policy experts have said while indexation is common, they believe it is virtually impossible that the threshold will not be adjusted over the coming years and decades. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Guardian Australia sought clarification on the $3m claim, but Keating was unavailable before deadline for publication. Despite Keating's concerns, the policy is expected to pass parliament with the support of the Greens in the senate. The final scheduled 0.5 percentage-point lift in SG comes 25 years later than Keating hoped when he laid out his vision in a 1991 speech. 'Tomorrow, 34 years after I nominated a 12% wage equivalent as the appropriate level of compulsory contribution into superannuation, the system finally matures,' Monday's statement said. Keating said the advent of compulsory super had slashed the country's reliance on taxpayer-funded pensions, pointing out that France spends 14% of its GDP on public pensions, Germany 10%, and the United States 7%. 'Australia's pension call on the budget is currently just 2.3% of GDP – a sunken level thanks entirely to universal superannuation. 'Superannuation, like Medicare, is now an Australian community standard, binding the whole population as a national economic family, with each person having a place.' He told the AFR that savers would have been between $250,000 and $300,000 better off were it not for John Howard's decision in 1996 to freeze the rate at 9% until 2013.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Lawyers investigate whether Hannah Thomas could sue police over alleged excessive use of force at Sydney protest
Lawyers are investigating whether protesters could sue New South Wales police over alleged excessive use of force during a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney, after which the former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas said she could lose sight in her right eye. Thomas, 35, who ran against the prime minister at the federal election, was arrested at the Belmore protest which was attended by about 60 people on Friday. She was subsequently taken to hospital and underwent surgery. O'Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors said on Monday it was acting for several people, including Thomas, involved in the protest and the firm was 'investigating the viability of civil proceedings'. Thomas and four others were arrested and charged after Friday's protest outside a business in Belmore accused of 'supplying electroplating and surface coating services for a variety of applications including aerospace and defence technology' to Israel. The 35-year-old was charged with resisting police and refusing or failing to comply with a direction to disperse. Principal solicitor Peter O'Brien said in a statement: 'Given that recent changes in the law in relation to protests have attempted to expand police powers to give directions, now subject to constitutional challenge, police may well have felt emboldened to act without proper and lawful acknowledgment of the right to protest. 'The government was warned that these changes to expand police powers to disperse protestors could lead to serious and ugly confrontations,' the lawyer said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The assistant police commissioner Brett McFadden on Monday morning denied any police wrongdoing. McFadden told the ABC he had reviewed body-worn-camera footage, and it did not show 'any misconduct on behalf of my officers'. On Monday afternoon, McFadden declared a critical incident investigation into Thomas's arrest after police determined 'the level of injury warranted a critical incident declaration'. Police said they had requested Thomas's medical information multiple times before being given the information needed to declare a critical incident. The investigation would be overseen by the police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission. The NSW Labor government passed legislation earlier this year aimed at curbing antisemitism. It expanded police move-on powers for protests near places of worship. The protest does not have to be directed at the place of worship. The legislation does not define how 'near' a person must be to a place of worship before police can enact the powers. A constitutional challenge now under way against the laws by the Palestine Action Group recently heard that the catalyst for the laws was a protest outside a synagogue where a member of the Israel Defense Forces was speaking. The reforms were met with a fierce backlash, including from one Labor MLC who told an internal meeting it was the most 'draconian' change to protest laws in decades. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The NSW Greens spokesperson for justice, Sue Higginson, wrote a letter to Minns on Monday urging the charges against Thomas and four other protesters to be withdrawn. She urged Minns to repeal the anti-protest laws, arguing they were 'introduced as a mechanism to chill legitimate and peaceful political expression in NSW'. Minns told reporters on Monday that police did not use the controversial places of worship legislation and instead relied on previously existing powers. However, Higginson rebutted this, arguing NSW police 'expressly included references to a place of worship in their fact sheets that describe the alleged offences that led to the arrests and assault at Belmore'. Police alleged one protester was issued a second move-on order after she walked 'across the road to the opposite side of SEC Plating which is a place of worship'. The protest was outside SEC Plating, which protesters claimed was manufacturing parts for used in the F-35 Jet program. However, SEC Plating has denied this is the case. The business is across the road from a mosque called the Teebah Islamic Association. Police arrested and charged five people, including Thomas, a 29-year-old woman and three men aged 24, 29 and 41.
