Queensland: A fact-based economic debate please Treasurer

Media Release.

 

Today, the Treasurer attempted to ridicule the Opposition’s analysis of the Costello Report yet he didn’t attack a single claim made by the Opposition.
Instead the Treasurer was too busy talking about the past and talking down the future to suit his sell-off agenda.
Like the Premier, he also hasn’t ruled out a big new tax on families in the next Budget – something not even mentioned in the final Costello report.
Today, as he backed in Costello’s ‘doom and gloom’ scenario, the Treasurer selectively quoted the Queensland Treasury Corporation about debt disregarding assets the Government owns. The same Queensland Treasury Corporation which advised publically as part of the Treasurer’s investor road show last year that:
Queensland’s ratio of financial assets to total liabilities indicates its relative financial strength compared with other Australian states
The same Treasury Corporation who also advised that:
The amount of money spent by Queensland on interest payments, when expressed as a share of revenue, is also low relative to its international peers, according to Standard & Poor’s.
The same Treasury Corporation that advised that:
“Queensland has a far lower level of General Government net debt, relative to operating revenue, compared to other similar international semi-sovereign issuers, according to information provided by Standard & Poor’s in a recent peer comparison analysis”
The same Queensland Treasury Corporation that also confirmed the Budget was on track to return to surplus in 2014-15 without mass sackings and privatisation to fund the LNP’s election promises.
The Treasurer also selectively quoted an Auditor-General’s report that details a fall in revenue and an increase in debt over a period spanning the global financial crisis and significant natural disasters. What he didn’t mention is that these factors were excluded from the scope of the Auditor-General’s report.
Queenslanders deserve a fact-based economic debate, not one based on a politically-motivated sham that’s being used as platform to sell off assets and sack Queensland workers.