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- 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
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- 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
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- 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 US securities commission
Our state Treasurer will shortly deliver his budget for next financial year.
A budget is an informed guesstimate about the state’s expected income and expenses for the year coming. I think actual, recorded results give a much better view of how well a government is managing.
This is Treasurer Fraser’s 2007-08 Report on State Finances. You might want to think twice about opening it. It’s 110 pages long and a bit impenetrable. http://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/office/knowledge/docs/state-finances/2007-08/state-finances-report-2007-08.pdf
It tells us that in the boom financial year of 2007/08 he delivered a deficit of $1.6 KEV*. That is a profit-and-loss result of negative $1.6 KEV*. His government also spent $5 KEV* more cash than it brought in. That’s as a result of its capital works program not being managed to budget. In other words, it blew its budget badly.
Treasurer Fraser explains that away with this magnificent piece of Sir Humphrey-ism. Get ready. It’s superb. Here it is, a direct quote from page 4.01.
'Capital Purchases in the General Government sector exceeded the estimated actual forecast due to a lower level of under expenditure than anticipated.'
That one is going in a frame on the wall.
OK, that’s one thing. The government’s total debt as at 30 June 2008 is the really scary number.
The financial disclosure laws in the United States are pretty comprehensive. Queensland’s Treasury Corporation raises money in the United States. So our government has to produce financial reports for the US Securities and Exchange Commission that meet US reporting requirements.
And that’s great, because the resulting financial statement is much, much easier to read than the one that the Government puts out here.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/852555/000119312508251662/dex99e.htm
That document shows clearly that as at 30 June, 2008, Queensland’s state debt was $41.796 KEV*. We owed $42 KEV*. And that was as a result of the good times. God knows how much that’s grown in the 12 months since then.
$42 KEV*. I’ll write it out. $42,000,000,000.00.
There are currently 2,236,800 people in the work-force in Queensland as at April, 2009
On that basis, each working person in Queensland owed $18,776.80 as at 30 June last year. We’ve been paying the interest load on that money all year.
Not Federal debt. Not personal debt. That’s debt owed by the state government of Queensland. Now you can add in your share of the $300 KEV that Kev’s borrowing as well.
Before we pay for one copper, one nurse, one doctor. It’s like each of us having a $18,700 credit card balance to finance every month before we can buy the groceries.
Happy with your election choice? There will come a time when a sensible economic manager in this state will need to relieve us of the burden of the interest payments. That will mean asset sales in rail, power stations, ports and anything else that’s not bolted down. The people who are in power at the time will cop it for that - but make no mistake - the reason we’ll have to do it is because of the shocking mismanagement of the boom times.
This state really did deserve better.
* a $KEV is the unit of AUD currency formerly known as $1 Billion.
