Tag Archives: debt

Qld state budget: thanks for the billions coal miners, now pay us even more

As I’ve been forecasting for months now, the Queensland state budget is in much better shape than the state Treasury forecast back in December. Higher royalties, stamp duty, and other taxes helped deliver a $1.9 billion operating surplus in 2021-22 … Continue reading

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Fake privatisation of Titles Registry helping Qld Gov’t pretend it has debt management plan

This post is an early draft of an article I’m preparing for a public finance or public policy journal about the Queensland Government’s accounting trickery regarding the Titles Registry last year. The state government has violated some well-established principles for … Continue reading

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Coal the dirty secret behind Qld budget improvement

The super high coal price is the main reason Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick will report a much improved state budget balance this week. However, yesterday the Brisbane Times reported: Mr Dick said the silver lining of the pandemic was an … Continue reading

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RBA would be right to taper its Quantitative Easing program

There’s a nice article by William McInnes in today’s Financial Review, Economists expect RBA to ease stimulus, which begins:  Economists expect Tuesday’s Reserve Bank board meeting to acknowledge the economy’s surprisingly strong recovery and to signal some tapering of its … Continue reading

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Qld Treasurer gives a master class in budget shenanigans

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has soared to previously unattained heights of state budget creative accounting, and I must admit I’m rather impressed by the cleverness of it all, while at the same time being appalled the Treasury would let him … Continue reading

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Interview with 4BC’s Scott Emerson on the federal budget

This afternoon, on his 4BC Drive program, former Queensland Government Transport Minister Scott Emerson and I shared our astonishment regarding the Morrison Government’s Go for Growth, Keynesian federal budget which Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down last night. You can listen … Continue reading

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Qld state finances chat with ABC’s Steve Austin & QEAS’s Nick Behrens

Fellow Queensland economist Nick Behrens and I sat down with 612 ABC Brisbane’s Steve Austin to chat about the latest report from the Auditor-General on Queensland’s state finances. Of course, COVID is the big story since March last year, but, … Continue reading

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Role of Treasury in economic policy conversation with Paul Tilley – latest Economics Explored episode

When I spoke with Scott Emerson on his 4BC Drive program last Thursday, I mentioned the federal Treasury would be currently working on options to extend JobKeeper in some form to tourism-dependent businesses. The Treasury has been prominent in developing … Continue reading

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Fiscal Stimulus with Fabrizio Carmignani – my latest Economics Explored podcast episode

Fiscal stimulus is very topical worldwide, with the new US President Joe Biden proposing a US$1.9 trillion COVID relief and stimulus package. And, in Australia, there is a debate occurring over how to support the tourism sector once JobKeeper finishes … Continue reading

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Brisbane Lockdown 2.0 – the sequel no one wanted

To keep Queenslanders safe, our state government has decided to lock down the over2 million residents of Greater Brisbane for the next three days, but its sudden, unexpected announcement at 8am sparked immediate panic buying in our supermarkets, and an … Continue reading

Posted in Brisbane, Budget, Macroeconomy, Queensland Government | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments