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The Palaszczuk government will unveil more than $320m for 500 homes under a new social housing pledge when it hands down the Queensland budget on Tuesday.
Soaring coal prices are also expected to deliver millions of dollars into the state government’s coffers on the back of the three-tiered coal royalties system introduced in July. The government has staunchly defended its changes to royalties, which has resulted in a billion-dollar bonanza on the back of persistently high coal prices.
Tuesday’s budget is set to outline cost-of-living relief measures, as well as announcements on housing amid a widespread shortage.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the government was “pulling every lever possible” to ensure Queenslanders had a roof over their heads.
“We recognise that this is a big issue out there for families,” she told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
“We also know that thousands of people continue to move to Queensland and that is putting additional pressure on our housing markets up right across the state, even in regional Queensland.”
The social housing is expected to be ready by mid-2025.
The $322m in funding in Tuesday’s state budget comes after a $64m funding increase for emergency housing in inner Brisbane and a $10m pledge to turn the Pinkenba quarantine facility into emergency accommodation.
The housing minister, Meaghan Scanlon, said every Queenslander deserved a roof over their head.
She acknowledged the heat in the housing market and the difficulty in getting construction projects off the ground because of supply constraints and labour shortages, “but the money is there”.
“It’s available and we’ll be doing everything we can to get those houses up off the ground as quickly as possible,” she told reporters.
The government has been under pressure over the shortage of social and affordable housing, with a Productivity Commission report in January saying the state spent the least, per capita, on social housing in Australia.
The opposition said the funding was the latest in a long list of promises the government had failed to keep, on time or at all.
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The social service peak body, the Queensland Council of Social Service (Qcoss), welcomed the extra housing but said it was not nearly enough.
“The Palaszczuk government says it has built on average more than 10 homes per week since it came into power – but it has been spending less than any other state per capita on social housing,” its chief executive, Aimee McVeigh, said in a statement.
“It needs to build more than 50 social and affordable homes a week to keep up with demand,” she said.
The government has also faced criticism from the Queensland Resources Council, which says the royalties hike, estimated to be among the steepest tariffs on resources in the world, was costing the state jobs and future investment opportunities.
Analysis by the council last month found bumper coal prices were forecast to add an extra $5bn to state coffers, bringing the total royalties paid by coal companies in 2022/23 to a record $13bn.
“When the investment rules change so drastically and so suddenly as they did when the world’s highest coal royalty was introduced in Queensland last year, that’s a wake-up call for investors in all resources projects who have reason to rethink whether Queensland is the best place to invest,” said the council’s head, Ian Macfarlane.
But the treasurer, Cameron Dick, called on the council to show respect to those who are suffering because of high inflation and high mortgage rates.
“People are doing it tough in Queensland, and I don’t think Queenslanders want to hear complaints from the coal lobby and from the mining lobby about paying a little bit more tax when they are making record profits and their revenue is through the roof,” he said.
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