Author Archives: Gene Tunny

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

Townsville Futures Plan

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland Government released the Townsville Futures Plan today, and it includes the rather meaningless designation of Townsville as the second capital of Queensland -hey, if you’re not first, you’re last – as well as acknowledging the city as the defence … Continue reading →

Posted in Townsville | Leave a comment

Increasing links with India great news for Qld economy

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Gene Tunny

India is expected to overtake China in population by around 2025 (What the world will look like in 2050), so it’s great news that Queensland is expanding its links with the country, as reported in today’s Brisbane Times: A massive … Continue reading →

Posted in India, Retail trade | Leave a comment

Media over-reacts to jobs data

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Media reports such as “Robust jobs growth in June shows economy in ‘reasonable health’” that are based on monthly movements in the ABS Labour Force Survey employment estimates are often meaningless. This is clear from the wide confidence intervals surrounding monthly … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy | 2 Comments

Country Australia not happy with carbon tax

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Country Australia is not happy with the carbon tax. Recent frustrations include the exemption of petrol but not diesel from the carbon tax and the impact of the carbon tax on the cost of irrigated agriculture, particularly cotton. These concerns, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change | Leave a comment

Macarthur Coal’s new logo

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the sharemarket listing of Queensland’s emerging mining giant Macarthur Coal, which I’ve heard was the third best performer among ASX 300 companies over the last decade. At its tenth anniversary celebration at the Queensland … Continue reading →

Posted in Mining | Leave a comment

Infrastructure Australia criticises State Governments for slow progress on reforms

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Gene Tunny

Infrastructure Australia’s latest report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) won’t give much comfort to people who hope our governments actually know what they’re doing when it comes to building the roads, railways and ports we need for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure | Leave a comment

Yes, closing coal industry would cost lots of jobs, but is that likely to happen?

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland Government is expecting to earn $2.8 billion in coal royalties in 2011-12 (Budget Strategy and Outlook, p. 94). Shutting down the coal industry would obviously have a large impact on Queensland’s Budget and economy, as well as the … Continue reading →

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