North Queensland community and business leaders were disappointed yesterday when the Treasurer Andrew Fraser and Deputy Premier Paul Lucas both shattered expectations of a mass migration of public servants to the region:

Push to relocate services stymied

Queensland State Government backflips on public service move to Far North

This is a sensible decision (my previous thoughts on this issue are here). In making his case for a greater reliance by North Queensland on private sector development, the Treasurer provided this interesting set of facts:

…there was one public servant for every 21 people in Townsville against a state ratio of one for every 23 and ratios at the Gold and Sunshine Coasts of one to 36.

The Treasurer has however run the risk of the Gold and Sunshine Coasts pushing for their fair share of public servants.