Labor to tax, LNP to cut for poll promises

Labor will tax the top end of town while the LNP will gut Cross River Rail and a range of Labor programs to pay for their election promises and pay off debt.

Curtis Pitt

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt is set to deliver Labor's election costings. (AAP)

Labor will slug the top end of town with four new taxes while the LNP will slash funding from Brisbane's Cross River Rail to pay for election promises and halt Queensland's ballooning debt.

Two days out from the state election, both Labor Treasurer Curtis Pitt and shadow treasurer Scott Emerson revealed their costings and how they would spend the state's money if they win government.

The LNP opposition has racked up $4.3 million worth of election promises, in contrast to Labor's $2.78 billion.

Mr Pitt announced four new taxes: a 15 per cent wagering tax targeting agencies based outside the state, a luxury motor vehicle duty, a new land tax category for around 850 large property holdings, and an increase on the surcharge applied for foreign purchasers of state land from 3 to 7 per cent.

The new taxes are predicted to raise $163.6 million a year for the next three years, which Mr Pitt insisted would come from those who could afford to pay.

"(These measures) will ensure that those who can afford to contribute, those who are benefiting from our growing economy, make a fair contribution," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"If you can afford a Maserati, you can contribute a bit extra to the growth of Queensland."

Mr Pitt also said the government would try to find a billion dollars worth of savings over four years, but pledged not to cut any services or implement redundancies.

The health department would be quarantined from any savings measures.

Two hours after Mr Pitt's announcement, Mr Emerson proposed $5 billion in savings, which will help pay for its $4.3 billion worth of election commitments.

Included in that is a plan to "reprioritise" the $2.56 billion Labor had allocated to its pet Cross River Rail project over the next four years, which would go to other infrastructure programs.

Only about $200 million would be kept to help retain the CRR delivery authority.

Mr Emerson said the LNP had "always acknowledged" there would be a need for a second rail crossing over the Brisbane river, but it wasn't required until 2026.

"The LNP is not walking away from CRR ... we're taking our time to make sure it stacks up," he said.

If elected, the LNP also plans to implement a whole-of-government efficiency program and save $1.6 billion over four years.

But Mr Emerson was quick to point out that didn't mean any forced redundancies and they would leave it up to individual departments to decide how they meet their targets.

Current budget estimates put state debt on track to hit $81 billion by 2021, but Mr Emerson claimed the LNP would reduce state debt by $700 million by 2021.

Mr Pitt said Labor's debt reduction plan would bring the figure down by just $135 million over the same period.

He claimed his figures were more trustworthy because if the LNP needed to form government with One Nation they would have to alter their costings.


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Source: AAP


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