QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (15:01): The discussions are happening at the departmental level, as I've made clear on a number of occasions. Treasury's advice is that the election option that we put into the trust arrangements at the suggestion of COSBOA and CPA is not expected to result in state and territory stamp duties, because it only applies for Commonwealth income tax purposes and doesn't require a change to the trust deed or trustee powers.

I'm informed by Treasury that they have engaged with all of the states and territories as the implementation details have been developed, with consideration given to relevant laws and arrangements. As stakeholders like CPA have made clear, it's on the states to provide the guidance and certainty to their taxpayers on this key question. All of this has been made clear before.

It may be that the shadow treasurer is either deliberately ignoring that or not aware of those important facts, but I appreciate the opportunity to inform him. When it comes to Treasurer Janetzki in Queensland, despite billions of dollars in extra funding from the Commonwealth and despite a growing GST take being provided to Queensland—despite all of that—he has recently seen a downgrade to his credit rating, and I think that explains more than anything the comments from Treasurer Janetzki, and in this regard, unfortunately, he has no more credibility than the shadow treasurer who asks the question.

The difference between the Queensland budget and the Commonwealth budget is that, on Friday night, the third ratings agency rated the Australian budget—the Commonwealth budget, managed by this side of the House—as triple A. It's a triple-A budget from all three major credit ratings agencies. It was actually a Labor government that was the first to secure the triple A stable from all three major credit ratings agencies.

It's for the Queensland Treasurer to explain why, despite billions of dollars in extra funding from the Albanese Labor government, they've still just seen a downgrade to their credit rating.