Coal companies will bear the brunt of Queensland’s revenue increases, with a sliding royalties scale to help fund the state’s huge health and infrastructure spend.
Queensland’s decade-long freeze on coal royalties will come to an end, with new progressive rates to net the state $1.2 billion over the next four years in the most significant addition to revenue in the 2021-22 budget.
Treasurer Cameron Dick handed down his third budget on Tuesday, bringing in a $1.91 billion surplus, a huge turnaround from the $3.48 billion deficit forecast last year. All up, actual revenue for 2021-22 was expected to be 14.2 per cent higher than budgeted, up $9.07 billion to $72.74 billion. That figure was forecast to rise slightly to $73.89 billion in 2022-23.The state’s 15 per cent coal royalty will increase to 20 per cent when coal prices reach $175, 30 per cent at $225 and 40 per cent at $300.
“We don’t know how long these record prices will remain, but they were not contemplated when the current royalty regime was designed,” he said.“The high prices have surprised even local coal companies, but to this point, the coal companies have enjoyed almost all of the upside.”“If coal prices returned to where they had been at historic average, then coal companies will pay no more than they had paid for the last 10 years,” he said.Dick said the new royalty regime would add $1.
Pre-empting the increase last week, Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said it amounted to a broken promise from the Palaszczuk government.
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