Monthly Archives: April 2012

Could you imagine Brisbane without the Story Bridge?

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Gene Tunny

Neil Wiseman’s final Way We Were column in the Sunday Mail today is on the history of the Story Bridge, which encountered some opposition at the time of its construction, both because traffic may not have justified it at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Transport | Leave a comment

Growth forecasts believable, particularly given Can Do attitude to mining (even on Cape York)

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Gene Tunny

A couple of recent economic forecasts, from the Treasury and my former Treasury colleague Peter Downes, suggest the Australian economy will remain resilient and may even surprise us with stronger than expected performance: Treasury forecasts of 3.25pc growth to put … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy, Mining | Leave a comment

Mining sector already making a large contribution to Governments

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Gene Tunny

While the Interim Report of the GST Distribution Review was fairly unsurprising (see the Australian coverage at Big States fall short in bid to ‘fix’ GST), it contains some useful and interesting pieces of analysis, including this chart showing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget, Mining | Leave a comment

CommSec’s State of the States misleading on Qld’s economic performance

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Gene Tunny

The latest edition of CommSec’s State of the States is out today, and it has WA ranked number one, a long way ahead of all other States, including Queensland, based on comparisons of eight economic indicators including economic growth, retail … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy | Leave a comment

Should Governments promote the development of tropical cities such as Townsville?

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Gene Tunny

I am both proud and somewhat bewildered to read that Townsville, where I was born and spent my first fifteen years, is approaching a population of 200,000 people, as reported in the Townsville Bulletin this morning (Welcome to Townsville: population … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Energy, Townsville | 3 Comments

Property industry confident Qld will out-perform other States

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Gene Tunny

The latest Property Council of Australia-ANZ Property Industry Confidence Survey found the industry is confident Queensland’s economy will out-perform other States and the property market will improve over 2012 (ANZ analysis: Confidence survey): As the latest PCA-ANZ survey results indicate, … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Macroeconomy, Mining | Leave a comment

Government right to consider scrapping ULDA

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Gene Tunny

I’m pleased to see the Government is following through with its election commitment to review the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA), as reported in the Townsville Bulletin this morning (Development authority in Newman’s sights): Mr Newman has committed to scrapping … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing | Leave a comment

UQ study confirms carbon tax will hit Qld the hardest

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Gene Tunny

A new study from the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute confirms previous modelling from the federal Treasury that Queensland will be hardest hit by the carbon tax and will experience the largest increase in electricity prices (Study sheds light … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change | 1 Comment

Qld budget surplus timetable remains the same – how about something more ambitious?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Gene Tunny

Although the report that the Queensland Government is borrowing to meet recurrent expenses, including to meet public servants’ wages, was presented as something new and surprising, this has been set out clearly in recent budget papers, including the mid-year fiscal … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget | Leave a comment

COAG too slow in delivering reforms – national OHS system long overdue

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Gene Tunny

It’s a pity we have to wait for politicians to become disgruntled before they tell us what they really think, but nonetheless it’s great to see former Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon speaking out about our dysfunctional federation, as reported by … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market | Leave a comment