Each and every Queenslander is today paying around $600 for schools, hospitals and roads in other states due to the impact of Queensland's coal royalties' tax, according to Federal Member for Flynn, Colin Boyce.
Mr Boyce said simple mathematics proved the argument he made in Federal Parliament last week (Tuesday, 4 November) that regional Queenslanders were being indirectly dudded by the state's coal royalties' regime – a fact proudly acknowledged by former Labor Premier, Steven Miles and continuing to this day.
"Mr Miles is proud of a regime which is delivering around $600 for every man, woman and child in Queensland to other states, due to GST's horizontal fiscal equalisation formula," Mr Boyce said.
"But big long words, calculations and methods don't hide the fact this is a straight-out transfer of wealth from hardworking Queenslanders to other less productive states, hidden through fiddly and convoluted arrangements that need to be called out.
"Frankly, it is a treacherous state of affairs that no responsible state government should allow to continue."
Mr Boyce said the top up from coal royalties to the GST pool meant Queensland was shelling out funding equal to $600 per person to other states - mainly Victoria.
"Having the world's highest coal royalties means we are paying for other states' projects through the GST funding model. We are losing more than $2 billion of our share of GST because of how it is calculated - money that could be going to our own hospitals, schools and roads," he said.
"Instead, it is being delivered via GST payments to other states – and hardworking Central Queenslanders are the ones footing the bill and will continue to do so.
"With other states benefiting from our regional mining powerhouses, our own critical infrastructure - like roads, hospital and school upgrades - are not being funded and our communities are worse off.
"At the end of the day, it is our regional businesses, families and communities who are being hurt by having the world's highest coal royalties which have delivered fewer contracts, more than a thousand job losses in Central Queensland and less investment in our rural towns."
Mr Boyce also backed in the Regions Before Royalties petition organised by the Resource Industry Network, which has already gained more than 2,000 signatures.
"Every person who has signed the petition rely on our coal industry for their income, and they are worried about what lies ahead because of the current challenges being faced by the sector," he said.
"They work in businesses that rely on having a robust and sustainable mining industry, and right now they are hurting. To know that other states are benefiting from that hurt rubs salt into their wounds."
