Queensland politics

[MrBurns]

14,000 job losses, I think Newman has gone too far, I know Labor stuffed the economy there but 14,000 people out of work is a social disaster.

 

[sails]

14,000 job losses, I think Newman has gone too far, I know Labor stuffed the economy there but 14,000 people out of work is a social disaster.

I suppose the question is did they actually work? Bligh commented earlier this week that many of her friends had lost their jobs. Were these somewhat useless jobs for mates?

Here is how the public service soared under labor - it makes 14,000 look fairly modest:





Source: http://www.ambitgambit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Queensland_Public_Service_Growth_2001_2012.jpg

 

[MrBurns]

I suppose the question is did they actually work? Bligh commented earlier this week that many of her friends had lost their jobs. Were these somewhat useless jobs for mates?

Here is how the public service soared under labor - it makes 14,000 look fairly modest:

I've no doubt it was bloated but there's 14000 people and their families to consider , I think it could have been gentler, not sure how but how would you feel if it was you, it's a real disaster.

 

[Tannin]

In a statement today, the Newman Government announced that it is not, repeat NOT "a slow motion train wreck". "There is nothing remotely slow motion about this government", Mr Newman said, "we are wrecking Queensland faster and more effectively than any government ever has before".

Well, OK, I made that up ... but it could be true.

Newman's big new coal tax is mind-bogglingly stupid. Unlike the (relatively small) Federal Government MRRT (AKA "the mining tax" or "the super profits tax", the Newman coal tax will be levvied on ALL coal miners, whether they are profitable or not. Marginal coal mines will close - and there will be quite a few. With the price of coal well down on past levels, many mines are not making all that much, and this harsh new tax will shut a lot of them down.

(Compare with the Federal MRRT which only applies if and only if the company is making a very large profit. Newman's big new tax applies even to mines ruynning at a loss. They will stop running, simple as that.)

Disclaimer: Personally I don't actually mind if a few coal mines shut down, or even all of them. Coal is a terrible fuel, the worst of alol possible fuels, and it should be phased out ASAP. So no tears from me. But Newman is nuts if he thinks he can turn Queensland into a ghost state and remain in power. He'll be out on his ear if he doesn't settle down and start governing sensibly.

PS: Queensland has always been a low-tax, low service state. It was so under Labor in the 1950s, it was so under Joh for decades after that. One of the very few things Liberal, National, and Labor all agreed about was the Queensland philosophy of lousy government services but not much tax. This is why, for example, Queensland has always had the worst roads in Australia, up until about 5 years ago (veryu roughly). Queensland Labor started spending money on government services like roads, education, and law enforcement as if Queensland was Victoria or Western Australia or NSW. But they failed to tax like the other states. You can't have both!

 

[moXJO]

I've no doubt it was bloated but there's 14000 people and their families to consider , I think it could have been gentler, not sure how but how would you feel if it was you, it's a real disaster.

That or we all suck up even bigger debt and taxes, then further down the track hello Greece. This is what happens with labor in charge, eventually someone has to get us back within our means. And get ready for a hell of a lot more pain now we are federally almost $300 billion in the hole. Labors solution is to keep running us into the dirt and then tell us how wonderful everything is.

 

[MrBurns]

That or we all suck up even bigger debt and taxes, then further down the track hello Greece. This is what happens with labor in charge, eventually someone has to get us back within our means. And get ready for a hell of a lot more pain now we are federally almost $300 billion in the hole. Labors solution is to keep running us into the dirt and then tell us how wonderful everything is.

Exactly and then lay the blame on Abbott when he has to do the dirty work.
I despise the socialist looters, I really do.

 

[drsmith]

The royalty increases only if the market price of coal is more than $100 per tonne.

Tuesday's state budget handed coal miners their second royalty increase in four years, taking the tariff from 10 to 12.5 per cent for coal sold at between $100 and $150 per tonne.

Coal sold for more than that price will attract a 15 per cent royalty, hitting more profitable miners such as BHP Billiton.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/br...s-petty-nicholls/story-e6frf7kf-1226472389620

http://www.osr.qld.gov.au/royalties/rates.shtml

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=coal-australian&months=60

 

[Tannin]

Here is how the public service soared under labor - it makes 14,000 look fairly modest

No it's not. That is so grossy misleading that most politicians would call it a plain lie. You need to be more careful with your sources.

Notice two things: first, nearly three-quarters of the graph is missing. Notice how nothing is shown below 140,000. Chopping off the bottom of a graph is one of the oldest tricks in the book. It can be done honestly, to make clear the direction of a trend, for example, but it can also be used the way it was used in this graph - to exagerate and distort.

Second, we have the very clever mislead-by-omission tactic. Notice how the graph ignores underlying population growth - for the years in question, no less that 25%!

So the graph pretends to show a 37% "blow out" in public service numbers, but is drawn in such a way as to look like a truly massive 700% rise, where in fact, the actual rise relative to population is just over 10%.

So there you have it: how to lie with statistics in one easy lesson.



(PS: Given the substantial increase in government services over that time, a 10% rise seems quite reasonable to me. I don't live in Queensland so I can't say what hospitals and schools and sewage and public transport are like, but I have done tens of thousands of kilometres on Queensland roads over the last 10 years and they have gone from being unquestionably the worst of any state in Australia to almost the best. NSW used to have better roads than Queensland, so did South Australia. Not any more. Victoria is still a little better but going backwards fast, WA remains middling-good, Tasmania is by far the best of all because of all the federal government money the island state gets - but Queensland is the bolter: last out of 7 to 2nd or 3rd in less than ten years! Well done Queensland!)

 

[Calliope]

Disclaimer: Personally I don't actually mind if a few coal mines shut down, or even all of them. Coal is a terrible fuel, the worst of alol possible fuels, and it should be phased out ASAP. So no tears from me.

So your a Greenie. Christine Milne would be proud of you. There goes your credibility.

 

[moXJO]

One question that needs to be asked is how did state labor F#$k up during a mining boom. And what happened to all that stamp duty during the housing boom.

 

[drsmith]

Campbell Newman has been politically very clever here.

With the sliding royalty rate based on the coal price, he is essentially attempting to cream the Gillard Government's MRRT. I would suggest that he figures that if BHP is prepared to pay a royalty to the feds in the form of an MRRT, they can pay it to the state instead. Not only that, the MRRT will now raise less revenue than it was going to before, making it easier for Tony Abbott to remove when in government.

Cop that Wayne Swan.

 

[Julia]

I've no doubt it was bloated but there's 14000 people and their families to consider , I think it could have been gentler, not sure how but how would you feel if it was you, it's a real disaster.

So you'd prefer that the State's debt would continue to rise exponentially so we can keep career public servants in jobs that create no tangible benefit?
Thanks to Labor, Queensland has been living wildly beyond its means. Good for Campbell Newman for actually risking unpopularity for the sake of getting us back to where before long we will be able to get our AAA credit rating back, and thus reduce borrowing costs, just as one example.

People lose their jobs every day. It's only news because it's a lot of people in one entity. Try to remember, amongst your tears and compassion, that these people are all getting redundancy packages. And if they actually have any talent then won't they easily enough find another job?
I lost jobs throughout my career when companies were taken over etc. Never once had a redundancy package.
Just got on with it and found another job.

That or we all suck up even bigger debt and taxes, then further down the track hello Greece. This is what happens with labor in charge, eventually someone has to get us back within our means. And get ready for a hell of a lot more pain now we are federally almost $300 billion in the hole. Labors solution is to keep running us into the dirt and then tell us how wonderful everything is.

+1.

Campbell Newman has been politically very clever here.

With the sliding royalty rate based on the coal price, he is essentially attempting to cream the Gillard Government's MRRT. I would suggest that he figures that if BHP is prepared to pay a royalty to the feds in the form of an MRRT, they can pay it to the state instead. Not only that, the MRRT will now raise less revenue than it was going to before, making it easier for Tony Abbott to remove when in government.

Cop that Wayne Swan.

Yep, I referred to this earlier. The increased royalties won't actually cost the mining companies anything more.
It all gets deducted from the MRRT. No wonder Mr Swan is frothing at the mouth.
It will be interesting to see if Swannie carries out his threat to cut State share of the GST if they raised royalties.
Any bets?

 

[sails]

I've no doubt it was bloated but there's 14000 people and their families to consider , I think it could have been gentler, not sure how but how would you feel if it was you, it's a real disaster.

MrBurns, it did almost happen under one change of government. My better half was head of a department and we had that worry that his job could go. However, like Julia said, one moves on. He was making enquiries for other jobs should the department be axed.

There have been redundancies in the banks recently. My son was one who took such a redundancy package and is now running with a business idea. Life does go on after job losses.

Aren't the axed workers being given redundancy payments? It's not like they are left completely destitute.

 

[Tannin]

And what happened to all that stamp duty during the housing boom.

There wasn't a lot. Queensland has very low stamp duty rates compared to the other states. In the old days, Queensland also had very poor government services comnpared to the other states so this wasn't a problem. But that has changed.

 

[banco]

A big donor to the ruling Liberal National Party in Queensland has escaped prosecution for illegal quarrying because of a last-minute change to legislation ordered by the state's Deputy Premier.

Karreman Quarries was this month facing legal action by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines over unlawful extraction of sand and gravel from the Upper Brisbane River when an amendment, slipped unnoticed into a package of reforms to the Water Act, retrospectively legalised its activities.

The change was not mentioned in the bill that preceded the vote on the amendments and even the Labor Opposition knew nothing about it.

ABC's 7.30 has learned the amendment was drafted after a meeting in April called at short notice by Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney at which the Karreman case was raised. The meeting was attended by Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps and senior bureaucrats.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-...pes-prosecution-for-illegal-quarrying/5543896

 

[Julia]

I wasn't living in Australia in the Joh era, but this sort of cronyism is immensely worrying.
It seems so blatant, no believable justification by Mr Seeney about the retrospective changing of the Act.

Result is at least three apparently decent blokes, farmers, are going to continue to lose value on their land.

The political scene in Queensland is very concerning. Mr Newman was elected with, imo, far too great a majority and it seems to have convinced him they can do anything at all and still get re-elected.
That's actually probably correct when you consider the farcical nature of the token Opposition.

 

[noco]

I wasn't living in Australia in the Joh era, but this sort of cronyism is immensely worrying.
It seems so blatant, no believable justification by Mr Seeney about the retrospective changing of the Act.

Result is at least three apparently decent blokes, farmers, are going to continue to lose value on their land.

The political scene in Queensland is very concerning. Mr Newman was elected with, imo, far too great a majority and it seems to have convinced him they can do anything at all and still get re-elected.
That's actually probably correct when you consider the farcical nature of the token Opposition.

Queensland needs an upper house like other states to be a watch dog......I think we had one until 1929 but I am not sure why it was abandoned.

I believe the upper house could be made up of Council mayors.......there are enough of them......but it would add to admin costs.

The problem we are over governed now......

IMHO, I believe we should do away with state Governments altogether.

 

[SirRumpole]

..

IMHO, I believe we should do away with state Governments altogether.

You got that one right.

 

[noco]

You got that one right.

Holy hell Rumpy.....don't tell me you and I have found some common ground at last.

 

[SirRumpole]

Holy hell Rumpy.....don't tell me you and I have found some common ground at last.

I think I also agreed with you about the spread of Islam and the craziness of religion so maybe we aren't all that different after all.

But , on the other hand...