The risk of the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s unprecedented $4b raid on public servants’ superannuation has been highlighted with the Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) revealing its long term assets fell more than $900 million below required returns.
Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson said QTC’s annual report showed that while it was required to provide the State Government with $2.2b to help fund the superannuation scheme, it would only return $1.3 billion with QTC describing the $900m gap as a "loss".
"When QTC is already falling $900m short of what is required in returns and branding it a loss, ‘Captain Risky’ Curtis Pitt's solution is strip even more assets from QTC in an unprecedented $4b raid," Mr Emerson said.
“This again highlights the short-sightedness and foolishness of the Labor Treasurer's unprecedented raid on public servants’ super to cover his budget black hole.
“At a time when these assets aren’t meeting identified rates of return Mr Pitt has done a smash and grab on them, not caring about the consequences.
“It also comes after Mr Pitt raided $3.4 billion from the Long Service Leave funding pool in his first State Budget, another move highlighted in QTC’s annual report.”
Mr Emerson said the Treasurer had already ignored the recommendation of the independent State Actuary, leaving the super fund at a heightened risk of going into deficit.
“The State Actuary has said Mr Pitt’s $4 billion raid would mean a 50-50 chance of the fund going into deficit, on an accounting basis,” he said.
“We also know from the Actuary’s testimony in Estimates this year that the fund did not meet the returns on which he based his calculations in 2015-16.
“It’s alarming and concerning the Palaszczuk Labor Government is ignoring all of the warning signs and playing Russian Roulette with public servants’ super.”
