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What we're talking about
- Durkim on New Zealand Gangs Mm, yeah... Real funny, Randhil... more
- Kayli on The Boats God help me, I put aside a whole afteroonn to figure this out. more
- Raynes on Tax and Pollution Until I found this I thoguht I'd have to spend the day inside. more
- James Brown on Mark Latham Mark, you must fell as if you are pushing it uphill, but you are the hope of the side. Keep it up! more
- Michael on Halal certification The Halal Choices website is http://www.halalchoices.com.au/product_lists.htmlIt lists all the products that have been ... more
- a barker on A few facts on illegal boat people We are the Lucky Country, or are we?.15 years ago maybe.How many Indonesian Officials are taking a a bribe from the people ... more
- Robin on The Boats Hey,Thanks! Great post you have written on "The Boats ".Really I can say that your post is very informative, I'll come ... more
- dan on A few facts on illegal boat people From what i can see if we dont do something about this flood gate issue,we will have the same nonsense thats happening over ... more
- Randhil on New Zealand Gangs This info is the cat's pajmaas! more
- Keshawn on CMC Complaint into Queensland Health That's rlelay shrewd! Good to see the logic set out so well. more
- howard on Learning from one another? We are such a politically correct and multiculturally sensitive country Islamists are flourishing here. Just as they ... more
- PP on Halal certification Thank you for the Halal Choices and the info about Coles - I will not be purchasing meat from Coles henceforth. In the UK it ... more
- PP on Halal certification Thank you for the Halal Choices and the info about Coles - I will not be purchasing meat from Coles henceforth. In the UK it ... more
- anne white on Halal certification A website that lists all Australian food products that are halal is, HALAL CHOICES.Also I phoned COLES (1800 061 562) and ... more
- john on The Taxi Industry No one have the right to do anything they dont want.. you want to drive cabs do it you are not force to do something you do ... more
- Diana on Halal certification I just found out about this today! Does anyone know how to get a list of products bearing this logo so we can boycott them? more
- lol on New Zealand Gangs lol... this isnt good at all more
- Ann on Support our Diggers Is it possible to buy this sticker? I'm sure any number of people would be proud to support our diggers by displaying the ... more
- Mimosa on Smith with PM Gillard You mean I don't have to pay for expert adcvie like this anymore?! more
- figsen/hypolgirl on Anna Bligh as President Hope you're checking this out Wobblyone. Your comment is one of the cleverist/funniest I have read. Couldn't stop laughing. ... more
The Ministers' Secret Luxury Dinner?
Queensland should be riding high on demand for our minerals from China and other countries.
We should be raking it in.
Western Australia is.
Queensland, however, seems to be stuck in a rut of bureaucracy that is slowing us down. And to me, it’s a problem with the culture of our government.
It’s come to a bit of a head with the front page of today’s The Courier Mail newspaper. Link
I think it’s great news that senior ministers in the Bligh government have met with Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart. I’m surprised that The Courier Mail’s focus is the “secret luxury dinner” between ministers and Ms Rinehart, but no doubt the culture of secrecy, former ministers convicted for corruption, success-fees, lobbyists and consultants making money from mates has driven The Courier Mail’s suspicions.
The Premier is right to expect more, not less of these sorts of meetings.
Ms Rinehart wants to invest $16.5 billion in the state. She’s faced so many bureaucratic roadblocks in approvals for the project that she demanded a meeting with the Premier.
To the Premier’s credit, senior ministers were dispatched to meet with Ms Rinehart to find out what was holding up the project. No doubt the Premier has been motivated at least in part by the reality that her government’s finances are now mired in debt. The Premier knows she needs every cent in extra income she can raise.
Ms Rinehart’s project will create real wealth, real jobs, a real rail line and substantial royalty payments to the Queensland Government.
The bureaucracy in Queensland seems incapable of approving this sort of project. This is the same bureaucracy led by Mike Kaiser as chief of staff for the Premier’s Department. They are hopelessly politicised and driven to please their political masters.
It’s a bureaucracy trained to produce statements that focus on trendy issues. Green jobs, climate-friendly projects and social infrastructure. Nasty incursions like rail lines, mines, ports and “dirty” brown jobs are an anathema to it.
After more than 20 years, the senior ranks of the bureaucracy in Queensland are well adjusted to the political views of their elected masters. Green – tick. Greenhouse-gas-emission-reduction – tick. Mines, rail lines, ports and “dirty” jobs seem to almost automatically rate a furrowed brow and delay after delay after delay.
The Queensland Government has gotten away with it for the past few years. But year after year it’s been spending more than it’s earned, and now we have an $85 billion debt to show for it. That debt is driving up the price that Queenslanders pay for everything – rego, fuel, electricity, water, rates and the flow-on through the entire economy
Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer have money to spend. They’ve had enough of the bureaucracy. Their investors capital could go anywhere in the world. Gina Rinehart has given the Bligh Government a second chance, the government should act quickly to take it.
But at a deeper level its time for cultural change in Queensland. It’s time for Queensland to start to recognise where its wealth and standard of living come from. We need a government and a bureaucracy whose culture is focussed on making investments happen – not on stopping them.
Blog comments
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There are some thin if the legitimate work as a line there. Most are sites and marketing study for the site owner rich, not you. The only thing is true legitimacy Ebay, selling things you already own
www.onlineuniversalwork.comridwanzero Friday 5 February, 2010 - 7:45 PM -
hahahahaha
BLIAR has been caught out again. FOI has now divulged to a journo who is actually doing his job that she was planning the sale of our bloody assets in 2008. Long before her last lot of lies to get elected.
Now. Just how deeply involved were her union mates. They have justification for a huge shitfight over this. But will they have the balls to take it on? I doubt it.
In my naivety I have always suffered from the delusion that this State had the resources to provide every citizen in it with wealth and the staples of living, at little or no cost. Simply because we are part of it.
How can it be that these bastards have sent us all to the cleaners?
I just can't get my mind around it all. And this is a Labour Party. The workers party.
Shitodear.
And what have we got coming on in opposition?
How depressing.
Wobbly.Wobblyone Monday 1 February, 2010 - 8:44 PM -
Malcolm Turnbull is a Socialist and Rhodes Scholar. The sad fact is that these traitors are on both sides of politicis. Who to trust? Tony Abbott needs to get rid of him and Senators Boyce and Troeth at the earliest opportunity. We should not have to tell him.
Glenis Sunday 31 January, 2010 - 10:01 AM -
Maybe Anna can get some money from M/S Rinehart and she can send some to the Taliban as well.This Labor Govt is getting more corrupt every day.Have a look at the photo the idiot is stuck for words.
p davis Friday 29 January, 2010 - 10:52 PM -
Come on guy give this government their due, don't we all have the same gauge rail line now through out the country after how many years??? This state and government almost makes me wish I could play dueling banjo's.
John Friday 29 January, 2010 - 10:22 PM -
Too complicated for Anna Bligh.
If she can't sell it or tax it she doesn't have a clue what to do with it.
She would be totally baffled by the fact that you can invest in this state and make money.
Typical labour policy, Tax, Sell then Tax some more.
I almost forgot their most important policy.
"Look after your mates and smear the opposition as much as possible."Richard Edwards Thursday 28 January, 2010 - 1:40 PM
