00:00G'day, Zach from Queensland Country Life reporting from Parliament House today.
00:04I promise you I'm still visiting farms. There's plenty of content about on-farm production on
00:09the way. Today's state budget, big budget for the government, it's budget number two.
00:16Middle of the political cycle, you don't see many chocolates, many new announcements,
00:21new commitments at this time in the political cycle. I'll be going through the budget papers,
00:25particularly for the primary industries portfolio and water portfolio, having a close look,
00:31making sure there aren't any cuts, and if there are any new commitments, seeing that we call them out.
00:37I'm here with a massive crew from the press, it's always well attended, about 100 people in the lock-up.
00:43We have axed two taxes. The GP patients tax, which was due to roar into life, and the young people
00:51are buying and building their first new home, won't pay any stamp duty. They are commitments
00:56that matter. They are going to be long-term relief for people, and in doing so, we become the first
01:03government in a long-term, in a long, long time, to get rid of taxes, not find new ways to
01:08increase them.
01:09I did just want to reflect briefly on productivity. The last productivity figure we had over the ABS
01:14did show a labour productivity improvement in Queensland at 1.4%, 1.37%, to be precise.
01:21And that is an important improvement into productivity. It's some of those green shoots
01:28that we've been wanting to see towards that, and coupled with, you know, when we talk about
01:34respect for taxpayer money, respect for Queensland taxpayer money, that's also an important part of
01:41it, to make sure we're getting productivity where we need it most, in the building and construction
01:46sector in particular.
01:48Well, the Treasurer's proven wrong about new commitments. There is something in the budget
01:53for primary industries, and for water. Look out on our homepage over the next few days
01:59for what's being committed, how it figures in the grand scheme of things, and what it could
02:03mean for you.
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