Before the State budget, Rod Campbell of The Australia Institute wrote:
‘The message for the Queensland Government is that if it wants to increase employment through government spending, the worst industry to spend money on is the mining industry.
‘In contrast, education and social services offer some of the highest rates of employment.
‘The mining industry’s $10 billion assistance wish list is aggressively pursued by its lobby groups, such as the Queensland Resource Council, the Minerals Council of Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. These groups have revenue of around $50 million per year to spend on lobbying for such assistance measures.
‘Queensland’s underfunding of social services has no silver bullet. However, reducing the state’s largesse to the mining industry could provide substantial funding to health, education and other services.’