Member for Hill Shane Knuth has questioned some of the tactics employed by the Government in their delivery of the States 2021-22 Queensland Budget on Tuesday. 

“The Treasurer, in his speech yesterday, bragged that 61 per cent of the budgets $14.7billion in capital expenditure was being delivered in regional Queensland,” Mr Knuth said  

“However, on closer examination, this claim was bolstered by the inclusion of the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Logan and Moreton Bay as part of the regional figures.  

“The Government has a habit of twisting figures. The actual percentage is 40 per cent to regional areas and 60 per cent delivered to the Brisbane and south-east corner.” 

Mr Knuth said the Tablelands were celebrating some good wins in the budget with $15 million committed to schools including. 

• $500,000 for Atherton State High School infrastructure 
• $100,00 to Atherton State School for refurbishment 
• $11.5million to Malanda State High School for classroom expansion 
• $524,000 to Malanda State School to enclose and cover basketball courts  

“It’s also pleasing that the investment in the Atherton Hospital has grown to close to $80 million with additional facilities and services added,” he said.  

“Stage two of the project is well underway, and this has been fantastic for Atherton.  

“It’s disappointing that there is no funding for regional nation building infrastructure in the budget.”  

Mr Knuth said that while we had received ongoing funding for roads over a number of years, he was disappointed that there was nothing allocated specifically for Ootan Road. 

“There was also little I could see spent on health that would stop the closure of medical practices, address doctor shortages throughout the region and alleviate long waitlists and access to services,” he said.  

“On the Tablelands and across the state, there has been a massive public housing shortage that we have continually warned the government about. The budget has allocated $1.9 billion over four years to build new dwellings, however only $281 million is to be spent on 467 new houses across the state in the next year.  

“The reality is we need most of this funding to be spent on emergency, transitional and long-term accommodation immediately.”