Tag Archives: qldtreasury

Queensland economic outlook for 2015

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Gene Tunny

It became clear toward the end of 2014 that the upcoming Queensland election would be fought in a relatively weak economy. 2014 unfortunately saw an increase in Queensland’s unemployment rate from around 6 per cent to around 7 per cent … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Productivity push from Qld Govt needed after living standards growth stalls

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Treasury econocrats should start investigating measures to improve our productivity performance, after ABS State Accounts data released on Friday confirmed a big slowdown in living standards growth over the last decade or so – measured, roughly I admit, by … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Productivity | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

How Seqwater learned to stop worrying and love Ipswich

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Despite initial fears about their relocation to Ipswich, it appears many staff of Seqwater, which runs South-East Queensland’s dams such as Wivenhoe and Somerset, have come to embrace the city. The local paper, the Queensland Times, which of course may … Continue reading →

Posted in Ipswich, Retail trade | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

CommSec State of States report misleading on population growth

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Gene Tunny

CommSec’s State of the States report is a PR exercise for the Commonwealth Bank rather than a serious piece of economic analysis. As I’ve posted on before, its methodology is daft and gives weird results (Ask a silly question, get … Continue reading →

Posted in Population | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Qld Treasury needs to explain logic of asset sales much more clearly

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Gene Tunny

In her terrific book On Speaking Well, former Presidential Speech Writer Peggy Noonan argues convincingly that people ultimately are moved by logic, and you shouldn’t underestimate the intelligence of your audience. She writes: A good case well argued and well … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure, Macroeconomy, Queensland Government, Transport | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Qld unemployment hot spots – Ipswich, Cairns and Wide Bay

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I’ve prepared some maps of regional unemployment rates based on last week’s new regional labour force data from the ABS for February 2014 (see below). The figures I’ve used are taken from Queensland Treasury’s information brief, which presents 12-month moving … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Qld Treasury right that paying down State debt is a huge challenge

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Treasury’s new Economic and Fiscal Challenges report reiterates the huge challenge ahead in paying down debt and restoring Queensland’s AAA credit rating, which isn’t a likely prospect this decade. The projection that debt levels will stabilise at around $80 … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Weekend reading – 15-16 March

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The Productivity Commission’s monster of a report on Public Infrastructure, which (rightly) recommends congestion pricing on roads, is worth reading, particularly because of the excellent Chapter 14 in Volume 2 on Social and Economic Regulation. On the costs to business … Continue reading →

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Treasury projections suggest Qld Plan regional population target unachievable

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I’ve previously questioned whether the target in the draft Queensland Plan to have half the population living outside South East Queensland is achievable (see Regional infrastructure plan should be based on updated population projections). The latest official State population projections from Queensland … Continue reading →

Posted in Population, Queensland Government | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Scope to cut Qld Government industry assistance

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls did a good job of dampening expectations for this year’s Queensland Budget yesterday: Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls says there will be no over-spending in the last budget before the election While the Government is rightly investigating … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy, Tourism | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments