Steve Austin from 612 ABC Brisbane interviewed me yesterday morning regarding the economic outlook, and I gave my current view that the economy is relatively weak at the moment, but there are reasons for optimism for later in the year (e.g. due to the lower Australian dollar, low interest rates and expected infrastructure spending):
In his interview with Treasurer Tim Nicholls this morning, Steve recalled one of the points I made yesterday morning about the royalties associated with each boat full of LNG leaving Gladstone harbour, and he asked the Treasurer if it’s about $1 million per boat, which is what I heard from an informed source but unfortunately can’t verify. The Treasurer noted that it won’t be a certain amount per boat because it will depend on the value of the gas coming out of the wellhead – i.e. the royalty is paid when it’s extracted from the ground rather than shipped on the boat. That’s correct, but a rough estimate of royalties associated with each LNG tanker leaving Gladstone harbour would be one of those interesting facts the Treasury should be able to estimate pretty easily.
Queensland Economy Watch 