Queenslanders urged to make sacrifices

Premier Anna Bligh has urged Queenslanders on the eve of the state budget to make
sacrifices to keep the economy moving.
The Bligh government will deliver the 2009/10 budget on Tuesday, already flagging a
petrol price hike, a wages cap for public servants and $15 billion in asset sales to
plug a $14 billion revenue hole.
"Without a doubt this is the toughest budget I've ever been involved in," Ms Bligh
said on Monday.
"It will be a budget asking Queenslanders to make sacrifices, but they'll be
sacrifices that will protect those things that are most important - our schools, our
hospitals, our roads."
School funding is expected to total more than $6 billion, with 350 new teachers and
teacher aides and a $3.6 million teacher leadership institute, Network Ten reported.
Pensioners are expected to receive nearly $200 a year to help pay power bills and
the stamp duty threshold for people buying land to build their first home will
increase from $150,000 to $250,000.
The economic update in February projected a $1.57 billion deficit for 2008/09 - well
above the $809 million surplus projected at budget time in June 2008 - but this
figure is tipped to be even higher.
The update also forecast a $3.16 billion deficit forecast for 2009/10, in the wake
of a sharp fall in taxes and royalties and GST receipts, poorer investment returns
and increased borrowing costs.
But the government has quarantined a massive spend on infrastructure to help meet
its March election promise of 100,000 jobs over the term and cater for future
growth.
The jobless rate for 2008/09 is expected to come in at 4.25 per cent, blowing out to
6.25 per cent in 2009/10.
The state's AAA credit rating has fallen victim to the global financial crisis.
Treasurer Andrew Fraser, who will deliver his second budget, said that to focus on
the credit rating would compromise the building program, which would be disastrous
for the economy.
"We could immediately do what the ratings agencies wanted - that is, massively
increase taxes and massively cut the building program," Mr Fraser said.
"We're not going to do that. That would be a recipe for disaster for the economy
over the next two years."
Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said losing the AAA rating was affecting the
government's borrowing power and Ms Bligh's ministers were now "casting around like
desperate drunken sailors" trying to fix the problem.
The premier had squandered the state's wealth and now had to resort to a fire sale
of its assets while stripping the fuel subsidy, he said.
"They've gone bust in a boom," he said.
"It's clear (voters) can't count on her for anything but deceit and debt."
Protesters wearing Anna Bligh masks and dressed as thieves plan to rally outside
state parliament to express their anger over privatisation.
The budget will be delivered in parliament at 2.30pm (AEST).