A war of words has broken out between two state governments over GST revenue, after Queensland’s treasurer claimed his state was keeping Victoria’s “hospital lights on”.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, hit back with blunt language on Monday morning, rubbishing the claims as “just bullshit”.
In a speech in Brisbane on Monday the Queensland treasurer, David Janetzki, declared the sunshine state was “stripped of $800m to reimburse New South Wales and Victoria for Covid-19 policy failures, five years after the fact”.
Changes to the allocation of tax revenues had left Queensland $5.3bn worse off over three years, he said, the “largest redistribution” in the 25-year history of the GST.
“Queensland, with its own newly re-established Productivity Commission, is doing the heavy lifting on productivity; our gas is solving the southern states’ energy crisis; and our GST revenue is going to Victoria to keep their hospital lights on,” he said.
Victoria’s premier said the complaints were “nonsense”.
“Well, perhaps let me put it in language and in a way that the Queensland treasurer can understand – it’s just bullshit, right?” Allan said, arguing that Victoria had historically been a net contributor.
“The Queensland budget’s black hole – their $8bn-plus black hole – has got nothing to do with the circumstances here in Victoria. Now look, I don’t want to quibble with another state. I don’t want to quibble with the Queensland treasurer.”
Janetzki handed down his first budget last week. It forecast the state’s total debt to top $200bn for the first time, partly due to a reduction in the state’s GST allocation and declining coal revenue.
The Queensland treasurer said GST was being increasingly misallocated away from Queensland, partly due to a judgement that southern states had “no or limited ability” to levy revenues from the gas industry.
“Every other state and territory gets a bigger share,” he said.
“Queensland’s GST revenue in 2025–26 is only 28% higher than it was in 2015–16.
“In comparison, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are up 58%, 118% and 317%.”
Due to its lower population density, Brisbane is assessed as needing “only a small fraction of the public transport infrastructure of Sydney and Melbourne”, but the higher cost of delivering services in a more decentralised state is not taken into account, he said.
“They effectively assume the cost of serving a resident in Ballarat, 113km from Melbourne, is the same as the cost of serving a resident in Mackay, 968km from Brisbane,” Janetzki said.
Allan said it was wrong to compare Victoria and Queensland’s public transport networks.
“If you want to compare public transport services, our world-class public transport service here in Melbourne, our huge network of buses, trains and trams is nothing compared to the public transport services you’ll find in Brisbane,” she said.
“So I think this just shows what nonsense that claim is and we shouldn’t be distracted by this nonsense. I’m not distracted by this nonsense that’s coming from the Queensland treasurer, because I’m focused on making the investments in the infrastructure that matter”.
Janetzki made the speech at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch in Brisbane, in South Bank. He has been treasurer of Queensland since the Liberal National party won government at last October’s election.
He also argued that Victoria’s premier should be replaced by either him or Queensland premier David Crisafulli as the representative of states at a productivity roundtable in August called by the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
“I’m putting forward the case that it should be me or our premier which is at the table,” he said.
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