CANBERRA BY ALL RIGHTS SHOULD FOOT THE LION'S SHARE OF NATURAL DISASTER BILLS

Queensland has been at the receiving end of natural disasters before, but the damage bill inflicted by Cyclone Debbie is likely to be unprecedented, a lot more for example than what Cyclone Yasi burdened the state budget with.


Both Labor and conservative governments in Queensland of the past, and including the current Palaszczuk government, in budgetary terms have always been ill prepared and haven't had a Plan B in place to make sure that the cost of rebuilding infrastructure after a such an event doesn't bleed the state budget dry.


Fair enough, there is an onus on the federal government of the day to come to the aid of any state and state government, politics aside, and cough up a good percentage of the damage bill.


All the Queenslanders who have been impacted by Cyclone Debbie are probably thinking right now why the Turnbull government continues to offload tens of millions in foreign aid to countries like Indonesia yet Turnbull has offered a comparative pittance to help them rebuild their lives and their businesses.


State governments in Queensland from this moment on have to be better prepared for natural disasters, budget wise and otherwise. That said, fact is most taxes and revenue streams lead to Canberra, not George Street, Brisbane.


Ultimately state governments are much more responsible for planning and executing emergency contingency responses to natural disaster events than they are for paying the bulk of the cost to rebuild. The greater portion of that should be absorbed by federal tax revenue, not state tax revenue.