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Category: Budget / Unemployment / Regional Development

Queensland Government to spend $1b budget windfall on regional jobs

Monday, 12 Dec 2016 16:00:09 | Chris O'Brien

Western LHD says it will be tough to keep within its $750 million budget

The Queensland Opposition has scoffed at the Government's plan to spend a $1 billion budget windfall on regional jobs, urging the Treasurer to instead use the higher than expected revenue to pay down debt.

Tomorrow's mid-year budget update will predict a $2 billion surplus for 2016-17 — more than $1 billion better than the June forecast of $867 million — due to increased coal royalties.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt will announce more measures to target unemployment in regional Queensland and pockets of the state's south-east.

"What we will see tomorrow is new funding for new projects and of course ramping up the existing [jobs] programs," Mr Pitt said.

"Some of the measures that I'll be announcing in the Mid-year Fiscal and Economic Review [MYFER] will have a very strong focus on regional Queensland, but will also pick up other parts of the state where the unemployment rate is slightly higher than the statewide average."

Mr Pitt said 1,000 jobs had already been found from Back to Work programs, but Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said tomorrow's announcement would be the third since July.

"The Government doesn't know what it's doing about unemployment," Mr Nicholls said.

He cautioned the Treasurer to put the extra revenue away for a rainy day or invest it in infrastructure.

"What we hear from everyone in the coal industry is that they expect that the coal price will come down again," he said.

"So [the royalties] should be put away, they should be used to help pay down debt and they should be used to fund productive infrastructure."

The Treasurer said the MYFER would also include an update on the Government's debt reduction plan.

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