Tag Archives: covid-19

Qld risks becoming a hermit state if vaccine isn’t safe and effective

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Even though Adelaide doesn’t yet meet the Commonwealth’s definition of a COVID hotspot (as pointed out by Andrew Clennell on Sky Australia today), the Queensland Government rushed to declare it one and to impose quarantine requirements on travellers from Adelaide, … Continue reading →

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PM thinks he has agreement with Premier on border, but it’s the CHO who makes the decisions

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Sky News has reported PM confident Berejiklian- Palaszczuk border battle will end by Christmas, and PM Scott Morrison has said he has an agreement with both Premiers for Queensland to be fully open to NSW, including Greater Sydney, by Christmas. … Continue reading →

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Qld economy in big trouble if China follows through with trade threat

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Australian investors appear remarkably optimistic about the prospects for patching up our relationship with China given that, as the Financial Review reported yesterday, ASX up 4.4pc in US election, QE week. I can understand why a new round of Quantitative … Continue reading →

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Amusing costings of Qld election commitments – $4bn of Gov’t election commitments reported to have zero “Net Impact”

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Gene Tunny

I laughed out loud when I opened up a copy of the costings of the current Queensland Government’s election commitments and it reported that its $4 billion plus of commitments have practically zero “Net Impact” because it will be borrowing … Continue reading →

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Qld has highest unemployment rate, but we’ve actually coped with COVID-shock better than most states

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Queensland once again has the highest unemployment rate in Australia (7.7% compared with a national average of 6.9%), as revealed by the September Labour Force Survey data released by the ABS yesterday, but we need to be careful in jumping … Continue reading →

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Election campaign debate needed on border and other restrictions

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Gene Tunny

The family of a well-known Brisbane businessman has cancelled a Halloween/election night party because there is still a limit on gatherings to 30 people in private residences (see the healthdirect website). Is it still necessary to have this restriction in … Continue reading →

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Campaigning pollies recognise importance of resources sector to Qld economy

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Gene Tunny

The Guardian Australia’s Queensland correspondent Ben Smee has a nice summary of our Premier’s first week of election campaigning in his article on the Queensland paradox, whereby politicians have to appeal to voters in both Townsville and Toowong: The premier, … Continue reading →

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Frydenberg’s won’t-die-wondering Budget

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered a strong speech tonight in handing down what I’d label as his won’t-die-wondering budget, or possibly as the Nixon-goes-to-China budget, a federal budget with an expected current financial year deficit of $214 billion and projected total … Continue reading →

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The Precautionary Principle and COVID-19 – podcast conversation with Joe Branigan

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Gene Tunny

The Precautionary Principle, which recommends an extreme “safety first” approach, is being used to justify the closure of state borders in Australia to deal with COVID-19. For instance, Justice Rangiah explicitly referred to a “precautionary approach” in his decision against … Continue reading →

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Gov’t claims police boost “fully funded”, but won’t release full budget forward estimates

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Earlier today, in announcing a huge boost to police staffing, expected to cost $624 million over five years, Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan commented (in the media release Palaszczuk Government to deliver an extra 2,025 police personnel): “Unlike the commitments … Continue reading →

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