Yesterday afternoon I spoke with Courier-Mail journalist Michael Wray about the depressing nature of the state election campaign, which is being held without a full set of budget forward estimates having been published by the Queensland Government. I’m grateful to Michael for quoting me at length in his article in today’s paper: Palaszczuk Government’s economic recovery plan ‘just a glossy document’. Here’s an excerpt, but please buy the paper or read it as a subscriber online to support local journalism:

It’s been used repeatedly [by] Annastacia Palaszczuk and her senior ministers throughout the campaign, but Labor’s hyped economic recovery plan has been slammed as a “glossy document” lacking details by a former Treasury official…

Adept Economics director and former Treasury official Gene Tunny said the economic recovery plan was “just a glossy document with lots of nice icons and descriptions of what (the Government is) doing but it’s not strong analysis of what’s happening in the economy”.

And he rejected the Government’s argument that the COVID-19 Fiscal and Economic Review released in September provided enough detail for voters to make informed choices about spending promises.

As I’ve written previously, the Queensland Treasury should release its forward estimates of the state budget out to 2023-24, or best case and worst case estimates given all the uncertainty, so we can have a well-informed debate on important economic and fiscal issues in the lead up to the state election.

1 William St, the Tower of Power, home to Cabinet Ministers and various departments, including Queensland Treasury, which should release its budget forward estimates in the interests of an informed election debate.