TREASURER Curtis Pitt said parliamentary members pushing to make North Queensland its own state should instead focus on securing funding from the federal government’s $5 billion Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).
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Mr Pitt also supplied budget numbers in Queensland Parliament on Thursday which he said showed that Queensland would be unable to fund itself.
North Queensland supplied $2.03 billion more in mining royalties than the rest of the state. But royalties would not cover loss of other state taxation revenue generated in South East Queensland, the treasurer said.
The rest of Queensland provides $2.44 billion more in transfer duties, and $2.8 billion more in payroll tax compared to North Queensland, Mr Pitt said.
“The combined effect of stamp duty, payroll tax and land tax – $5.99 billion – is almost three times the size of North Queensland’s net contribution of royalties. That is a big hole in the budget of a North Queensland state.”
Mr Pitt responded to a motion by Mount Isa State Member Rob Katter, who proposed that parliament support the separation of Queensland into two states. The Commonwealth Constitution allowed this but it needed the support of the parliament.
Mr Katter said the North Queensland state could fund itself. “It is estimated that it would cost $8 billion to $10 billion a year to run the new state. We would be getting up to $4 billion to $5 billion a year in royalties and we would be getting GST revenue of $2 billion to $3 billion.
“It can be done and we need it to happen.”
Independent State Member for Cairns Christopher Pyne supported the failed motion by saying that government policy was made by Brisbane based public servants. These public servants had no understanding of how these decisions impacted far north Queensland’s rural, remote and indigenous communities, Mr Pyne said.
Member for Gladstone Glenn Butcher said if North Queensland was to secede there would be “war” between Cairns and Townsville over which city should be capital.
