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High-income Queensland families are best placed to reap the benefits of vouchers that cut the cost of children’s sports, researchers have found, as a think tank issued calls for state concessions and cost-of-living support to be better targeted to families in need.
The national analysis of household support payments – including vouchers for kids and rebates on energy bills, council rates and public transport – was prepared by Policy Institute Australia, and released on Tuesday morning.
The institute’s principal economist, Nicholas Tarrant, said across all Australian states, there were many concessions available to people with significant assets.
His report questioned whether it made sense for governments to deliver cost-of-living savings in this way with state budgets under pressure.
On Friday, Queensland’s credit rating was downgraded for the first time since 2009, with ratings agency S&P Global highlighting Olympic infrastructure spending-driven deficits and economic headwinds.
“Rather than offering all these different concessions, governments could offer a lump sum to those in need,” Tarrant told this masthead, pointing to a model used in South Australia.
Queensland’s Play On! sports voucher program is not income tested, which means any child aged 5-17 with a Medicare card can get a voucher worth up to $200 to go towards sports activities each financial year.
This makes it different to a New South Wales scheme, which provides two $50 vouchers for sport, recreational, creative or cultural activities, but is available only to families receiving the family tax benefit.
Tarrant said by means-testing the program, the NSW government was able to save about half its cost, which gave it more “bang for buck”.
The Policy Institute Australia modelling is based on HILDA data sets, which show that higher-income families have more children eligible for the vouchers. Assuming full uptake, this means richer families can access more money from the government program.
The report also said Queensland had the highest ongoing concession spend of any jurisdiction because of its 50c public transport fare policy, which was made permanent in 2025.
A detailed analysis of Victorian travel patterns, showing the impact of discounts prompted by this year’s fuel crisis, found that higher income earners were more likely to use public transport. Tarrant said he would expect to see a similar trend in Queensland.
The institute gave the example of a retiree in Queensland with a $3 million home and $500,000 in super, who would be eligible for concessions on utilities as high as $616, including electricity, gas and water rebates.
By comparison, it said a working family with one child, $95,000 in combined income, a $500,000 mortgage and few other assets would not typically qualify for a concession card or these rebates.
The report calculated total concessions and cost-of-living support at $2.4 billion, or about 8.2 per cent of taxation revenue. It said this was more than a quarter of stamp duty revenue, or almost equivalent to the $2.5 billion in gambling taxes and levies.
A spokesperson for Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki defended the government’s approach to household support while pursuing a budget surplus in 2029-30.
“Despite global pressures, rising interest rates, federal budget uncertainty and the former Labor government’s legacy of fiscal vandalism, we delivered a record cost-of-living package for Queenslanders doing it tough in the middle of a national affordability crisis,” they said.
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