Labor's plan to reduce Queensland's debt will rely on profits generated by the very assets the Newman government wants to sell to achieve the same aim.
Shadow Treasurer Curtis Pitt unveiled Labor's fiscal strategy on Friday before the Queensland election on January 31.
Central to Labor's plan will be a "debt-reduction trust", in which it will quarantine two-thirds of the returns from income-earning assets the Newman Government was planning to lease long-term to private enterprise, with the rest going into consolidated revenue.
Mr Pitt said the trust would pay down $5.4 billion of the $46 billion worth of general government debt over six years and $12 billion of that debt over 10 years.
"(These) are revenue streams that will not be available to the LNP (Liberal National Party)," Mr Pitt said.
He also indicated a Labor government would merge the three state-owned electricity distributors - Ergon, Energex and Powerlink - into a single, more efficient network business.
It would also combine energy generators CS Energy and Stanwell into one new generation business.
The moves would achieve savings of $150 million and see board positions cut from 34 to 16.
There would also be no forced redundancies in the workforce, Mr Pitt said.
"We will not make a promise like Campbell Newman did and say that there will be no job losses ... (but) we will be working off natural attrition," he said.
Unsurprisingly, Treasurer Tim Nicholls has criticised the plan, saying Labor is trying to spend dividend money from the public assets that has already been allocated in forward estimates - a mistake he predicts will result in cuts and increased fees.
"Queenslanders know that you cannot spend the money twice," Mr Nicholls said.
"You can't use your income to both buy the groceries and pay down the mortgage."
His government hopes to generate $37 billion by leasing assets, spending $25 billion on debt reduction, $8.6 billion on infrastructure and $3.4 billion on cost-of-living relief.
The Newman government also insists the state's debt is much higher at about $80 billion, which also takes into account debt from government-owned corporations.
But that extra debt is a liability the corporations take care of themselves, Mr Pitt said.
The different perspectives have seen a very different election campaign from both sides, with the LNP having already promised $1.47 billion - mostly big-ticket infrastructure items - while Labor has only pledged $441 million on things such as extra teachers and nurses.
"Labor's promises have been and will continue to be, careful and modest in spending terms when compared to the LNP," Mr Pitt said.
Mr Newman had a low-key campaign day on Friday in anticipation of Labor's announcement, pledging to progressively raise the payroll tax exemption to $1.4 million by 2017.
LABOR'S FISCAL PRINCIPLES:
- maintain net operating surplus
- pay down general government debt of $5.4 billion over six years, $12b over 10 years
- borrowings will be strictly managed for new infrastructure
- maintain competitive taxation
- target full funding of long-term liabilities (ie, WorkCover)
(Source: Queensland Labor)
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