Amy Remeikis
Queensland state political reporter
Labor has released its economic plan, detailing
government-owned corporation reform, a 'debt action plan' to pay down
$12 billion in general government debt over 10 years, and "no new or
increased taxes" as it seeks to combat the government on economic
credentials.
But they have not released costings for the more than
$620 million in election commitments so far, instead choosing to wait
"until we've actually released them all".
Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk answers questions about Labor's economic plan. Photo: Amy Remeikis
But Opposition Treasury spokesman Curtis Pitt said Labor's
plan "does not involve mass sacking of government workers to pay for
our commitments", new taxes, fees or charges or increases on
existing ones.
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"Labor's promises have been and will continue to be, careful and modest in spending terms when compared to the LNP," he said.
"But they are meaningful promises that set about undoing the damage done to Queensland by Campbell Newman."
Instead,
it relies on paying down general government debt - the debt governments
accumulate from day to day business and building infrastructure,
instead of including debt owned by government-owned corporations, which
is serviced by the revenue they raise and tax-equivalent payments.
Paying down debt
General
government debt in Queensland is about $46 billion. The government
plans on paying this down by about $7 billion through its Strong Choices
asset lease and privatisation plan, as detailed by the analysis
economist John Quiggin undertook.
Labor plans on paying it down by $5.4 billion over the next six years.
It
plans on a $12 billion pay down over the next decade, "to reach zero
net debt", "exceeding the likely pay down of general government debt
under the Newman LNP Government's asset sales plan".
"When we look
at that figure ($46 billion), Labor, from year one of our promise, we
will be under the debt action plan paying down $5.4 billion over six
years. Of course, that means over our 10-year plan, that $12 billion
will be paid down," Mr Pitt said.
"This is the debt that is not
self-supporting. Right now, those government-owned businesses are paying
down their own debt and this is the debt we must be paying down to
ensure we are impressing upon people we are serious about paying down
debt."
It means that Labor will take longer to pay down the debt,
but they have said there would be a difference in the time frames for
that, for a while.
But Mr Pitt said under Labor's plan, the
government could continue paying down debt using revenues raised by its
corporations, while the LNP had chosen a "one-off" option.
"Now I'm not sure where their future sources are going to be for debt pay down," he said.
"That's a question you can ask the Treasurer."
Mr
Pitt vowed to maintain a general government net operating surplus over
the economic cycle, promising to "match" the LNP's much touted return to
surplus next financial year.
Government-owned corporations
It
has also vowed to "quarantine" 66 per cent of dividends raised by the
government-owned corporations, for a debt management trust,
while reforming the management of the corporations.
"A Labor
government will merge the three electricity distribution network
businesses - Ergon, Energex and Powerlink - into a single, more
efficient network business," Mr Pitt said.
"We will also combine the two electricity generation businesses - CS Energy and Stanwell - into a new generation business.
"This will consolidate the number of government-owned energy businesses from five, currently, down to two.
"Independent
modelling by Orion Consulting Network details that this new structure
for our energy businesses will achieve more than $150 million a year in
savings."
Mr Pitt said that number would be achieved through a
reduction in board and management costs, bringing board positions from
34 to 16, reduced administration and human resources duplication and
savings from aggregated network operations, which would include
lower borrowings from lower capital spend, transaction costs and loan
fees.
"And importantly, these savings are achievable without any forced redundancies," he said.
When pressed, Mr Pitt said Labor was not promising no job losses, just that it wouldn't force people into losing their position.
"We will not make a promise like Campbell Newman did and say there will be no job losses," he said.
"We
have no forced redundancies. Our first approach will be of
course, redeployment, and we will of course, with consolidation of
five entities down to two, see some changes and that includes changes
in the space of the boards, the number of people on those boards, and
of course there are going to be senior managers, but all senior
executive contracts will be honoured.
"We will work off natural attrition and not forced redundancies. We have been clear."
Mr
Pitt said the state's forecast growth, which the Premier and Treasurer
have been pointing to for the past year as proof of their economic
management, which is set to be the highest in the nation "will be almost
entirely due to LNG exports", which was a Beattie government
initiative.
"The best time for Labor to be in office, is during a period of growth," he said.
"Because
we are the ones to capitalise on that. Because we believe that people
matter and employment matters and that is the message we are giving to
Queenslanders."
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