A Fiscal Balance is different to the Operational Balance in that it includes the expenditure relating to capital investment as well as the income any asset sales.
As Queensland has a growing population, and that is projected to continue into the foreseeable future, successive governments have invested in capital projects such as schools, hospital and roads. These capital investments have been funded through borrowing rather than cutting expenditure on the hospitals of today to fund the building of the hospitals of tomorrow.
The only way can be reduced is by having a Fiscal Surplus which would involve having more income each year than is spent on the operational costs of government (running schools and hospitals) as well as the capital investment of government (building new hospitals).
Based on our assessment of the Queensland Government having a Fiscal Deficit of $2 billion in 2028/29 a future government would have to raise an additional $2billion in taxation revenue or cut $2billion in that year alone to reduce debt in the 2028/29 financial year.
Given the size of the capital investment in the current budget's forward estimates, achieving a fiscal surplus prior to 2028/29 which be a much harder task and would involve more significant cuts in expenditure and or significant increases in taxation and other income.
A fiscal balance with () indicates a fiscal deficit.
