I dropped into the head office of CCIQ on Wickham Terrace today for an update on coronavirus and for a briefing on the December quarter Pulse survey results. Once again, I spoke with CCIQ Senior Policy Officer Gus Mandigora and Chief Economist Marcus Smith (check out their profiles at the CCIQ website and listen to our first coronavirus interview if you haven’t yet). You can listen to our latest interview here:

Here are some timestamps so you can jump to the highlights:

• 1:05 – update from Gus on what Certificates of Origin figures are telling us about the impact of coronavirus on exports
• 5:10 – Marcus notes CCIQ’s latest Pulse Survey found Queensland business sentiment is at record low
• 10:35 – Queensland Government response to coronavirus and what CCIQ thinks of it – “early days in terms of determining whether it’s enough”
• 12:30 – discussion of temporary payroll tax relief just announced by state government (here is the state government’s media release and here is a webpage with details of payroll tax calculation)
• 13:10 – Marcus asked about impact of coronavirus on state government budget
• 15:00 – CCIQ wants government to stimulate economy via infrastructure projects
• 17:00 – Gus updates us on the latest information from freight forwarders, noting there are lots of delays at ports in China, partly due to coronavirus-caused labour shortages, and there are still no live marine products being imported into China (as seafood markets and restaurants aren’t operating)
• 20:00 – Marcus reiterates business activity “quite low at the moment” and “businesses are doing it tough”, and he notes the federal government has been saving money for a rainy day, but that rainy day is approaching quickly; its tax cuts haven’t stimulated the economy as it hoped