Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Birmingham—$17,500 each. Senator Arbib said we were not talking about the global financial crisis. Sixty-four billion dollars of that debt was racked up before the global financial crisis even commenced. Standard and Poor’s were questioning the Queensland economy in March of last year. They warned the Queensland state government six months before the recession that they would be downgrading Queensland if they did not get their act in order. So, of course, they did not and they lost the AAA rating. They were the first state in the country to get it and they were the first to lose it.

Now of course we pay more interest. What could we be doing with that money? We pay billions of dollars of interest every year. Imagine the schools that we could build in Queensland. Imagine the hospitals we could have. The hospital system in Queensland is a shambles, yet we pay billions of dollars in interest because the Queensland government cannot manage the economy. We do not have enough police. Imagine how many police you could have for a couple of billion dollars, which is the interest we pay every year to service that debt.

What is worse—and Senator Arbib did not want to talk about this—is that it was racked up in the good times. We have had record mining receipts, record mining royalties, in Queensland for the last 10 years. It was the best time in our state’s history. It was boom times for Queensland and still the government could not manage the finances. We had people flocking into Queensland. With property taxes and land taxes, the revenue was immense. But still the government could not balance the books. It is absolutely outrageous. Let’s face it. The GST, which I know those opposite did not want to bring in, has been very good for Queensland.