Tag Archives: qldtreasury

Qld Audit Office gives scathing assessment of Government procurement

The Queensland Audit Office’s first report for the 2016-17 financial year is a scathing assessment of Government procurement practices, an assessment which should spur the State Treasury into action. After all, it is proverbial that, if you look after the … Continue reading

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Townsville’s double digit unemployment rate signifies major downturn in region

Yesterday afternoon I had a good chat with Pat Hession on Townsville ABC Radio about the latest discouraging unemployment data for my old home town of Townsville. Readers will be familiar with the vastly different economic conditions across Queensland (see … Continue reading

Posted in Labour market, Townsville, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Makin and Pearce confirm urgency of Budget repair in Conference of Economists paper

At the Australian Conference of Economists in Adelaide this week, Griffith University Economics Professor Tony Makin and ESA Qld Vice President Julian Pearce will present a very interesting paper titled Fiscal Consolidation and Australia’s Optimal Public Debt. Tony and Julian … Continue reading

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Upcoming Qld Treasury briefing on Budget economic forecasts to ESA Qld

As the Secretary of the Queensland Branch of the Economic Society of Australia, I am very pleased that Greg Uptin, a senior Queensland Treasury official, will once again brief us on the Treasury’s economic forecasts underpinning the 2016-17 State Budget. … Continue reading

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Regional Qld still suffering from mining downturn and drought

ABS regional labour force data for April reveal increasing unemployment in regional Queensland, particularly in Townsville and the Queensland outback, as regional Queensland endures the mining downturn and drought. Unemployment in the Queensland outback was at 10.4% in April, up … Continue reading

Posted in Labour market, North Queensland, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Qld unemployment rate trends up and jobs trend down

The April 2016 ABS jobs data confirm the view I have expressed for a while now that the Queensland economy is under-performing (see charts below and Treasury’s brief). While in South-East Queensland conditions appear reasonable, the regions are struggling with … Continue reading

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Extra GST revenue welcome, but Qld still faces big fiscal challenges

The Queensland Government must be pleased the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) has recommended it receive an additional $520 million above what it might have expected from the GST revenue carve up for 2016-17 (see 2016 Update Report). The gain to … Continue reading

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Trend is the Treasurer’s friend

The Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt issued an upbeat media release on the Queensland economy yesterday, but I am unsure the Queensland Treasury gross state product (GSP) data he quotes should be interpreted as optimistically as he interprets them. The media … Continue reading

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How the Qld economy performed over 2015

In 2015, the Queensland economy proved itself resilient to the end of the mining boom, and recovered from the apparent downturn, a so-called technical recession, at the end of 2014. Even though the economy is proving resilient, growth is at … Continue reading

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Qld currency was model for Australian currency

Last month, former UQ Economics lecturer Dr Jon Stanford published a very interesting paper in the Queensland History Journal titled Queensland’s Own Money, 1893-1910: Model for the Australian Note Issue (paywalled unfortunately). Jon discusses the financial crisis of the early … Continue reading

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