As the treasurer tells his tale of woe and lays the blame at global factors out of his control, the question is being asked, how long has the problem been going on and why didn't the state government do something earlier.
We are going $1.66 billion into deficit by the forecast, and could be deeper and worse our states credit rating has dropped, the only state to do so, to AA+ from AAA which means we will pay a higher rate of interest on government borrowings and we were paying $10 million a day in interest before all this.
You'd have to say that the treasury has not kept the government informed of the situation or they have simply turned a blind eye to it hoping it wouldn't impact until after the elections.
With labor heavy weights jumping ship and taking life time incomes with them, it will be years before this state will be in the black again and one could only expect the incoming government to be stuck with the job of trying to sort out a mess.
Once Australia's boom state, riding a wave of property and mining investment, Queensland has an economy grinding to a halt. Treasury officials issued a dire warning yesterday for the next financial year, when they fear the budget deficit will double to $3.2billion.
The latest forecasts, which take into account the Rudd Government's $42 billion stimulus package and recent interest rate cuts, predict a further 60,000 people will be laid off in 2009-10, when economic growth will slump to 1per cent, putting Queensland on the brink of a recession.
With the property market stagnant and weakening global demand for coal, the $809 million surplus forecast for this financial year had become $54 million by December and was revised yesterday to a $1.573 billion deficit.
In the past two months, Treasury officials have revised down revenue collections by $500 million in transfer duty, $427 million in royalties and $334 million in GST, and for the first time will have to top up the supposedly fully funded government superannuation scheme.
The treasurer has come up with a solution though, he plans to either cut services, or raise taxes.
Brilliant!
3 comments:
Surprise, surprise, this was the genius who pontificated about how goo, and how much cheaper Councils would be after the amalgamations and he's basically admitted they knew about the world wide downturn for over 18 months and done nothing hoping they'd trade out of it. Unbelievable!
If people remember one thing about Labor, it should be the forced amalgamations. Make them pay at the next elections for ruining your life, your property value and gifting your investment to developers who give them huge political donations.
Beattie, Bligh, two names Queenslanders will remember for all the wrong reasons.
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