Category Archives: Budget

Interview with Steve Austin on Qld election issues incl. LNP’s fiscal principles & Greens’ promises

Yesterday, on Steve Austin’s 612 ABC Brisbane Mornings radio show, I had another enjoyable chat with Steve and some of his listeners regarding a range of state election issues. These included John Quiggin’s critique of the LNP’s fiscal principles, the … Continue reading

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Qld Greens policies would increase State Gov’t spending by $8-9BN p.a.

Queensland’s Deputy Premier Jackie Trad is under threat of losing her seat of South Brisbane to the Greens candidate Amy MacMahon, who is benefiting politically from a range of utopian policies disconnected from economic reality (see Friday’s Courier-Mail on the … Continue reading

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Queensland State Election 2017: Week 2 review from Joe Branigan

I am again very grateful for Joe Branigan’s review of the previous week in the Queensland election. The views expressed in the guest post are Joe’s, and they should not necessarily be attributed to me. GT Winner must target the … Continue reading

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Qld state debt debate is challenging for both sides

What an exciting first week of the election campaign! I am very pleased that state government debt is a prominent issue in the campaign, and I must say I’m surprised by the Queensland Treasurer’s recent description of the total state … Continue reading

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Comments on Qld state debt to the Courier-Mail

I am quoted in today’s Courier-Mail in an article on Queensland state debt, which for the whole Queensland Government (incl. government-owned businesses) is on its way to over $80 billion (see chart below). The paper reports on the Premier’s failure … Continue reading

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Qld Budget data visualisation from Truii

Brisbane-based data visualisation company Truii has produced an impressive data visualisation of the 2015-16 Queensland Budget: Queensland Government finance data 2015-16 The data visualisation uses open data from the Queensland Government, including a comprehensive data set on contracts and grants. … Continue reading

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My comments in Brisbane Times on Qld Government regional CAPEX

Brisbane Times journalist Tony Moore has written an interesting piece based on a QEW post of mine from June on the regional distribution of Queensland Government capital spending in the 2017-18 Queensland State Budget: Analysis shows booming south-east is losing … Continue reading

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Qld Budget, economy and polls will give Premier confidence to call election this year

The Australian reports this morning that the Palaszczuk Government is polling well in two-party preferred terms (53% for ALP vs 47% for LNP). The strong result is largely due to One Nation smashing the LNP primary vote. It does not … Continue reading

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NSW winning fiscal State of Origin

My former Treasury colleague and old friend Joe Branigan, now at Cadence Economics and SMART Infrastructure Facility, was quick to tweet a State-of-Origin themed chart yesterday following the release of the NSW State Budget (see Joe’s chart below). As noted … Continue reading

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Huge regional disparities in Qld Government capital spending per capita

The Queensland Government’s $10.2 billion capital program in 2017-18 is heavily skewed to regional areas outside SEQ and towards inner city Brisbane, but away from other areas in SEQ (see the chart below which I’ve created based on data in … Continue reading

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