Monthly Archives: July 2011

Tales of the two-speed economy

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Cashed up miners are pushing up rents in Mackay, with some prepared to pay $700+ per week for a house: 450 join already long queue Meanwhile the Fraser Coast economy remains in a slump, due to a drop in international … Continue reading →

Posted in Mackay, Mining, Tourism, Wide Bay-Burnett | Leave a comment

Top economists against carbon tax

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Gene Tunny

University of Melbourne Economics Professor Stephen King questions whether the carbon tax is in the national interest and essentially concludes it is based on wishful thinking that our actions alone will influence the world to act: The objectives of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Energy | Leave a comment

Qld Treasury remains optimistic about economy

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Despite the bad economic news coming out of the US (i.e. the potential for a double-dip recession), and the ongoing  troubles in Europe, Queensland Treasury, rightly in my view, remains optimistic about Queensland’s economic prospects in its latest Queensland Economic … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy | Leave a comment

Heritage protection could hold back Townsville CBD revitalisation

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Townsville City Council has a stated objective of revitalising the CBD, but the move to create character precincts, in older suburbs close to the CBD such as South Townsville (as reported in the Townsville Bulletin), is contrary to this objective. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Townsville | 1 Comment

Ipswich apartment tower based on misunderstanding of what makes Ipswich attractive

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Over the 15 years from 2006 to 2021, Ipswich’s population is set to grow from 142,500 to 286,400 (OESR projections). Hence the developers of Ipswich’s first high-rise apartment tower probably thought they were on a winner, but that turned out … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Housing, Ipswich | Leave a comment

Queensland investment boom on its way

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Gene Tunny

From this great chart in the new Queensland Infrastructure Plan (p. 23) it appears that around $40 billion of investment projects were committed to over January to March this year: The Queensland economy is set for strong growth over the next … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining, Queensland Government | 1 Comment

Carbon tax creates uncertainty for regional Qld businesses

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Premier Anna Bligh today will launch the Queensland Regionalisation Strategy (see Bligh plugs Downs future), but the ultimate success of the Strategy may depend on the impacts of the carbon tax on our regional economies. Many regional businesses remain concerned … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Climate change, Mining, Queensland Government, Tourism | Leave a comment

Carbon tax impacts on tourism and construction sectors

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Tourism boss Daniel Gschwind is worried about the impact of the carbon tax on the State’s tourism industry, as reported in the Gold Coast Bulletin this morning: THE carbon tax is another challenge for the Gold Coast tourism industry … Continue reading →

Posted in Cairns, Climate change, Gold Coast, Mining, North Queensland, Tourism | 1 Comment

Queensland has to make the biggest adjustment to carbon price

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Queensland will have to endure a much larger economic adjustment in response to the carbon price than other States, in large part because of the need to reduce fugitive emissions from coal mining and emissions relating to aluminium smelting, which uses huge … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Macroeconomy, Mining | 2 Comments

School halls taskforce gives tick of approval to Qld Govt

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Gene Tunny

While the Building the Education Revolution (BER) Implementation Taskforce has come down hard on NSW and Victoria (BER waste blows out to $1.1bn), Queensland has received a good report from the Taskforce: The only state government that can claim to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Leave a comment