It’s that time of year when the Queensland parliament has been scrutinising the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s most recent budget through the annual Estimates Hearings. Here’s what we’ve uncovered by asking the questions Queenslanders wanted us to ask:
Cost of living - Alarming new Consumer Price Index numbers released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics have revealed Queensland recorded the biggest increases in the country last financial year for the big four cost-of-living responsibilities for state governments:
Rent (QLD: 8.9% increase)
Electricity (QLD: 25.4% increase)
Health costs (QLD: 6.7% increase)
Insurance (QLD: 17.1% increase)
In every one of these critical categories, Queensland recorded the worst cost-of-living pressures in the country, well above the national average. Housing, electricity, health and insurance premiums are the big bills Queenslanders are now paying due to the systemic service delivery failures of this government.
We are in this position because the Palaszczuk Government has failed to properly increase housing supply, which has driven up rents more than anywhere else in the country.
Similarly, they haven’t maintained our power plants which has driven up electricity costs.
And their decision to water down the laws created the Queensland Youth Crime Crisis, which is now so out of control it’s driven insurance premiums up more than anywhere else in the country.
The Palaszczuk Government’s failures are affecting Queenslanders, whether it’s their lifestyles, their safety or their hip-pockets.
Police numbers and crime - The Palaszczuk Labor Government has been forced to admit frontline police numbers are going backwards.
After months of denials, Queenslanders now know police numbers shrunk by 202 officers last financial year. A total of 685 officers left the Queensland Police Service last financial year and just 483 new officers were sworn-in. That’s 202 fewer police officers in the middle of the Queensland Youth Crime Crisis.
This, at a time, when shocking new ABS data revealed Queenslanders are more likely to be crime victims than any other Australians, with the number of robbery, theft, break-in and stolen car victims growing by 16% in just one year.
Alarmingly, Queenslanders are now twice as likely than residents in New South Wales to be robbed or have their homes broken into and nearly three times as likely to have their car stolen.
The figures show close to 200,000 Queenslanders became victims of thefts, robberies and break-ins last year, with the true impact of the Palaszczuk Government’s weak laws and fewer police laid bare.
It’s clear the Palaszczuk Government doesn’t have the solutions to the Crime Crisis they created with weak laws and fewer police.
Hospitals and Ambulance Ramping - New Queensland Health data revealed ambulance ramping has reached 45%. That means nearly one in every two people arriving by ambulance to hospital will be stuck waiting to get into the emergency department. At some hospitals, people have been waiting more than 10 hours.
Concerningly, ambulance ramping is continuing to worsen. These new figures are a 2% increase this year and three times the rate of ambulance ramping when the Palaszczuk Government was first elected.
Queenslanders just want to know when they call an ambulance in an emergency, that one will come. They deserve to know they won’t be left laying on a driveway, waiting to get into an emergency department. They deserve to know they can see a doctor when they need to.
Budget Blowouts – And Budget Estimates also exposed Minister Bailey’s evolution of excuses about the cover-up of a $2.4 billion blowout on a Palaszczuk Labor Government signature train manufacturing program.
After weeks of evasive answers and changing stories, under questioning in Budget Estimates, the Palaszczuk Government has now admitted:
The minister deliberately attempted to cover-up the blowout with his office directing the department to delete the figure from public communications.
The manufacturing contract was signed on June 29, prior to their June 30 media announcement.
The premier and minister covered-up the blowout, despite the manufacturing contract being signed prior to media announcements.
This is a government that believes it’s justified to lie to Queenslanders instead of being honest about a $2.4 billion blowout they’ll pay because of the government’s failures.
Why does this matter? Every dollar wasted in a budget blowout is a dollar that can’t be invested into local hospitals and road upgrades for our local community.
In summary, Queenslanders know this government is no longer listening because of their constant state of chaos and crisis and they simply don’t have the solutions Queenslanders need.
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