Queensland budget 2016: Palaszczuk government to hunt tax avoiders

But apart from the opposition, no one seems to mind.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Treasurer Curtis Pitt say it’s a family-friendly budget.

After taking $4.1 billion in general government debt and transferring it onto the government-owned corporations books past year, Mr Pitt has again leaned on the GOCs, taking any cash surpluses – a round $750 million – and placing them in general government accounts, on top of the dividends the government is also commandeering.

“By 2019-20, we expect it will be around 68 per cent”, Mr Pitt said.

He also left the door open for future raids, given the State Actuary advised the government it could take $5 billion out and still maintain Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) guidelines.

“I think all Queenslanders will be disappointed with this budget”, he said.

However, the Treasurer has promised entitlements won’t be affected for public servants in the scheme.

In fact, stakeholders and industry groups generally supported the $53 billion budget, particularly given its emphasis on regional employment and cost-of-living relief.

But Mr Emerson pointed to an error Mr Pitt made last week in explaining surcharge of foreign home buyers to return fire.

“It forecasts higher unemployment, it forecasts more debt, it forecasts increased fees, regos and charges above 3.5 per cent”.

In terms of the cash surpluses, the money is there if the GOCs – the electricity and water network businesses – need it, but in the meantime, it offsets general government debt, while doing nothing for the overall debt, which is still forecast to hit $78 billion over the forwards.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls insisted there was nothing worth celebrating in the budget.

“At a time when the Queensland Government’s resource revenue is being drastically written-down, trying to recoup losses from one of the few sectors of the Queensland economy that is now generating jobs is short-sighted”, he said.

Mr Nicholls also hit out at the government for raiding more “hollow logs” after it past year transferred about $4 billion of government debt on to state-owned corporations and stopped paying into the defined benefit scheme.