The Treasurer followed through on his announcement from last year to investigate taking from the $10 billion defined benefit scheme surplus, "repatriating" $4 billion, $1 billion less than what the State Actuary advised could be safely made available.

That relies on no major stock market volatility that would require the state to funnel that money back.

This would be difficult in the near future, with $2 billion earmarked for general government debt pay down and the other half set aside for infrastructure.

State Actuary Wayne Cannon warned Mr Pitt in advice the Treasurer tabled in state parliament on Tuesday afternoon that the "risk is greater than it appears on face value".

"In order to ensure the ongoing funding of the scheme, it is critical that the government recognises this issue and stands ready to contribute additional funds should adverse experience occur in the future," Mr Cannon wrote.

Mr Pitt said the government would "absolutely" funnel money back if necessary, but the government was focused on spending money where it was needed now.

That would be in tackling Queensland's 6.2 per cent trend unemployment rate, particularly in regional and rural Queensland where it has hit double figures. It plans on rewarding regional employers with $10,000 grants to hire someone for a year – if that person has been long-term unemployed the grant will jump to $15,000.

It is also hoping that pumping money into capital work programs – through infrastructure spends, mostly on roads - the economy will be kick started while the government waits for its innovation and diversification agenda to start paying dividends.

But Chris Stanley of the Major Contractors Association of Queensland said the state couldn't afford to wait.

"Our 2016 major projects report highlighted a collapse in major project infrastructure over the last four years from $15 billion (per year) to $4 billion," he said.

"...So, in that respect we look again to government and to the Opposition to review its stated positions on asset recycling."

Queensland director of the Australian Industry Group, Jemina Dunn said a "longer term, more sustainable source of revenue" needed to be found to fund future infrastructure needs.

"The AI Group has long supported the carefully targeted recycling of assets," she said.

"The NSW experience demonstrates there can be public support for privatisation or long-term leasing where proceeds are used to grow the economy through investment in productivity-lifting infrastructure.

"These are difficult decisions for governments to make but the NSW economy is now reaping the rewards and we urge this Government and the Opposition to reconsider their stated positions around asset recycling into the longer term.

"We believe there is a public tolerance for that position where we can see the outcomes delivered through a productivity-lifting infrastructure which boosts the economy."

Mr Pitt said the government maintained its commitment not to sell assets and Labor had proved it was possible to carry out its election commitments without privatisation.

But it has done that by dipping into the defined benefit scheme surplus and loading the government owned corporations with debt.

Net borrowings for the GOCs will exceed $40 billion over the forwards, while at the same time, about $10 billion in dividends and tax-equivalent payments are being repurposed into general government spending.

While general government debt has been paid down by about $10 billion over the past two years, the overall State debt is still climbing towards $80 billion.

Mr Pitt said the metric business and ratings agencies were concerned with was the debt to revenue ratio, which has decreased from just over 90 per cent under the Newman years to 71 per cent in the next financial year, dipping below 70 per cent in the forwards. But add in the GOC debt as well, despite its self-serving nature, and the debt to revenue ratio sits at 129 per cent, decreasing by 5 per cent over the next four years.

Mr Pitt is dealing with an economy that is struggling under the weight of falling commodity prices, less than expected population growth, drought across 84 per cent of the state while still recovering from major natural disasters that compounded on each other.

But the Opposition, which planned on solving the state's economic woes through a privatisation program that largely targeted Queensland's electricity network, described the budget as "raids, rip-offs and write downs", taking aim at the additional $3.1 billion wage bill for public servants, with the budget papers revealing an additional 4100 government workers had been hired in the last financial year, but not budgeted for.

Mr Pitt said more than 80 per cent of those workers were frontline, particularly in health and education, with the government still "repairing the damage" of the Newman Government cuts.

But shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson called the budget a "failure" that would lead to a shrinking economy.

Mr Pitt disagreed, pointing to the forecast 4 per cent economic growth for the state, which still leads the nation, largely thanks to the Labor-initiated LNG industry.

But critics have questioned the budget's ability to respond if something goes wrong – if another natural disaster hits or the world economy dips worse than expected, Queensland won't be able to respond.

"There are a lot hypotheticals in budgets, we have forecasts and projections," Mr Pitt said on Tuesday after delivering the budget.

"So what we are talking about here is the best knowledge that we have about what will happen across the forward estimates.

"We very clearly talked about the fact that we needed to further diversify our economy, we need to ensure that we play to our strengths at the moment, which clearly are in agriculture and tourism, and with our innovation agenda under accelerating Advance Queensland we will need to make sure that we bring some of those businesses and additional revenue streams to fruition. And we can do that. We have done that before.

"When you look at what happened with the LNG industry, that was an opportunity for a game-changer in Queensland with new innovations. You have heard the Premier talk about just how important future arrangements could be with the US Navy and their great green fleet initiative.

"If we are able to work those proposals up, we will see Queensland and more broadly Australia put on the world map in terms of what we are able to do in terms of bio-futures."

Parliament resumes on Wednesday.

Have questions about the Queensland Budget? Visit our Facebook page at 9.30am on Wednesday July 15 for a live Q&A with our state political editor Amy Remeikis. Note: The Facebook Live Q&A has been postponed to 12.30pm so Amy can cover a 10am press conference.