Any brief glimmer of satisfaction at the Queensland government announcing the environmentally and economically sensible decision to scrap the state’s eight cents a litre petrol subsidy was immediately countered by the statement that the planned sale of Queensland Rail’s coal assets “will maximise the amount of coal that Queensland can export to the world.” If [...]
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QUEENSLAND POLITICS
Time for Queensland to scrap its petrol subsidy
In this era of wide awareness about the need to reduce greenhouse emissions and debates about using pricing and market mechanisms to help achieve this, the state of Queensland maintains an absurd, expensive program of subsidising petrol by about eight cents a litre. Of course it is politically very difficult for any government to abolish, [...]
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Immigration politics reappearing in Qld?
There was some curious and occasionally concerning commentary in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail this week regarding migration intake into Queensland. Many people are quite rightly urging that governments do not react to the current economic difficulties by winding back the openness of their economies. Yet calls to slash migrant numbers can sometimes equate to another path to [...]
READ MOREWater recycling washed away
If you ever wonder why people get cynical about politicians and the media, look no further than the current debacle regarding the Queensland government’s approach on recycling purified water back into the drinking supply. After The Australian newspaper ran a determined, prolonged fear campaign for a full month recycling all the usual rubbish about ‘toilet [...]
READ MOREQld Labor MP joins the Greens
It is an interesting development to see Ronan Lee, the Member for Indooroopilly in the Qld Parliament, announce today that he has left the Labor Party and joined the Green Party. This gives the Greens their first MP at state or federal level in Queensland. Ronan was scheduled to speak at the same event I spoke [...]
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