Tony Moore reports in the Brisbane Times (7.9.17) on economic analysis showing that the Palaszczuk Government’s recent budget has promised increased capital spending in some of the state’s regions, apparently at the expense of faster growing locations in the southeast corner.
‘Queensland’s fastest-growing regions in the south-east corner are being “unfairly” underfunded at the expense of north Queensland, an economist’s analysis of the state government’s 2017-18 budget shows.
‘Economist Gene Tunny, a former Commonwealth Treasury economist who now runs the Queensland Economy Watch website, examined where the money was being spent in the 2017-18 budget.
‘Mr Tunny found the government spending difference between north and south-east Queensland to be “excessive”.
‘“The large per capita funding differences between well-funded regions, such as Fitzroy and inner Brisbane, and relatively poorly funded regions, such as Brisbane’s eastern, southern and western suburbs and Logan-Beaudesert among others, appear excessive to me,” he wrote.
‘Mr Tunny found funding to all of Queensland’s fastest-growing regions, such as Brisbane’s outer suburbs, the Moreton Bay region, Logan, Beaudesert and the Gold and Sunshine coasts, was “well below the state average”.’