Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I dare not say Tasmania with a Tasmanian in the chair and two other Tasmanians sitting around me! Although, perhaps I will take Senator Marshall’s interjection and include Tasmania in that. Whilst Queensland has not done better than it should, it has done pretty well out of the relativities.

One of the things that I am continually distressed about is that, with the huge amounts of money coming in from the Commonwealth through the financial assistance grants and the GST—which is based on the same sort of formula—Queensland still has enormously high taxes, particularly in the area of stamp duty and payroll tax. Senators will recall that, when we introduced the GST, there were all sorts of commitments, although never real commitments, from all of the Labor state premiers that, once they got their hands on every single cent of the GST—which, as we know, they have—they would address the state taxes that have really inhibited business growth and employment creation. Foremost amongst those was payroll tax. Some of the states have made some attempts to reduce taxes, but Queensland is one of the worst when it comes to the taxes that it continues to collect in spite of the fact that it is getting enormous revenues from the GST and the financial assistance grants delivered by the Commonwealth Grants Commission.

The Queensland government has criminally wasted money that has come to it and it has continued to accept more and more revenue from its own sources as a result of the property boom over the last few years. What has it done with its money? It certainly has not spent it on infrastructure. Most of the roads infrastructure in Queensland, be it at the local government level, national highway level or roads of national significance level, comes from the Commonwealth government. The contribution of the Queensland government is very small by comparison.

The Queensland government certainly has not been putting the money into health infrastructure. The health system in Queensland, once the envy of every state of Australia, is now a basket case. It is an absolute tragedy. Money has not been put into it where it counts. Certainly, there are an enormous number of spin doctors employed in the health system, as well as everywhere else in the government. There are a hell of a lot of pen pushers—people who fill in reports and do surveys and questionnaires. But the contribution to the medical staff, the doctors and nurses who actually do the work of looking after the health of Queenslanders, has been almost pitiful. Then there was the scandal of the Dr Death saga, when Dr Death was going to come back into Queensland to face the music. But he would have arrived in the middle of the election campaign, so what did Mr Beattie say? That he did not want him back. This is the sort of rubbish you have in Queensland. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.