2016-17 Queensland Budget

14 June 2016
OVERVIEW

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt handed down the 2016-17 Queensland Budget this afternoon, the second budget of the Palaszczuk Government. In delivering his speech, the Treasurer said today’s budget was about three key priorities: jobs creating innovation; investment; and infrastructure.

The Budget predicts an operating surplus of $867 million for 2016-17, with a $1.2 billion surplus in 2017-18, which will reduce to $321 million in 2018-19.

Key announcements in today’s budget include:

An increase of the first home owners grant from $15,000 to $20,000 for one year on properties valued at less than $750,000
An additional $225 million to be spent on the Government’s Advance Queensland Innovation fund – this will include $40 million to attract businesses to relocate to Queensland using attraction incentives such as payroll tax rebates and transfer duty concessions, and targeting priority industries such as biofutures, advanced manufacturing, defence and aerospace, mining equipment, technology and services (METS), biomedical and life sciences
$100 million in extra funding for a new two-year Back to Work Regional Employment Package.

The Treasurer also announced that Cross River Rail remains the Queensland Government’s number one infrastructure priority, with the allocation of $500 million towards the project.

KEY PARAMETERS

Estimated actual employment growth for 2015-16 of 1.75%, with employment growth expected to continue at similar rates over 2016-17 and 2017-18
Unemployment rate of just over 6% expected to continue for 2016-17, with the jobless rate to reduce to 5.75 % by 2019-20
Current growth rate of 3.5%, predicted to improve to 4% in the next financial year
Whole-of-government debt of $73.5 billion, including government-owned corporations
The Budget has suffered a $4.7 billion revenue write-down over the forward estimates
Total government spending of $53 billion