Category Archives: Budget

Borrowing to Pay Wages

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Gene Tunny

I caught up with Steve Austin on 612 ABC Brisbane this morning to discuss Sir Leo Hielscher’s sterling record as Queensland Under Treasurer in the seventies and eighties and to compare our state’s previous stellar financial performance with the mess … Continue reading →

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Big Budget Challenge for New Qld Treasurer

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Gene Tunny

Today’s Courier-Mail article reporting that Townsville University Hospital can’t afford to fix its elevators reminded me of something a former state Under-Treasurer told me when I researched my 2018 book Beautiful One Day, Broke the Next. He told me governments … Continue reading →

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$1k each power bill subsidy is an irresponsible & desperate vote-buying exercise

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Gene Tunny

It’s not uncommon to find energy subsidies being criticized in IMF reviews of emerging economies. They’re often a policy favoured by irresponsible autocrats, as we’ve witnessed in various economic basket cases like Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. It seems the Queensland … Continue reading →

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Huge upward revision in state debt – what’s going on?

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Gene Tunny

We’re getting close to the point where we must respect the adage “no one ever kicks a dead dog” about the current Queensland state government. But it’s left itself open to criticism about its latest huge upward revision to state … Continue reading →

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How the Qld economy has changed in recent decades

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Gene Tunny

The state and national economies have experienced similar trends by industry since 2000. The big changes have been the 2-3x increase in the mining sector’s importance since China’s economic growth started significantly influencing the global economy in the early-2000s (Figure … Continue reading →

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How the Palaszczuk Gov’t Failed to Abide By Its Own Fiscal Principles | What it Means for the Miles Gov’t

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Gene Tunny

The Palaszczuk Government breached its own self-imposed fiscal principles and had to introduce new weaker principles in 2021. The Queensland Government, now headed by Premier Miles but with the same Treasurer, is at risk of breaching two of its revised … Continue reading →

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What’s the best measure of the Qld Gov’t budget balance? Net Operating Balance vs Fiscal Balance

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Gene Tunny

On Tuesday night I was on a panel discussing the Queensland state budget at an Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance (ATA) event held at the Paddington Tavern. One of the points discussed was the spin regarding the biggest-ever surplus for Queensland of … Continue reading →

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Over half of Qld Budget’s $60bn of revenue upgrades used for additional spending over FY21 to FY24

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Gene Tunny

Queensland general government revenues are $60 billion higher than once expected over 2020-21 to 2023-24, but debt is only $23 billion lower, with total spending revised up by around $32 billion. Some of this is understandable due to higher inflation … Continue reading →

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Stopping poor infrastructure spending & pork barreling w/ Nicholas Gruen

Posted on June 10, 2023 by Gene Tunny

Around the corner from my Brunswick St office, at the RNA showgrounds, work is underway on the Exhibition station upgrade so it’s ready for Cross River Rail, Brisbane’s new subway system. This appears to have necessitated traffic control on Gregory … Continue reading →

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What is the fiscal impulse from the Australian Budget?

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Gene Tunny

The Australian Government is moving in the right direction, but not fast enough, with fiscal policy if it wants to fight inflation. It appears too reliant on the expected cessation of pandemic-related stimulated measures to support its claim that the … Continue reading →

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