Tuesday 26 October 2010

They're just numbers. It's all the way you look at it

Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser is pissed off at the suggestions that the State debt and our economy has been ranked behind those of other states.

He told the ABC that there are many indicators in a Commsec study that is "in the main positive is economic growth."

"While challenges remain, recovery is underway and the study does not rank the States from first to last," Fraser says. "Anyone who has reported that there is a league table cannot find a reference in this report to that being the case. Because Commsec has changed its methodology after I and other treasurers joined in in saying that it was potentially going to award the gold medal to the person in the 100 metre race who might have come last but most improved on their personal best time."

"That's not a report or a measure that has any grounding in common sense," Andrew Fraser says.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Queensland is creating debt at a faster rate than it is selling-off assets. The State Parliament has heard debt will actually be higher after Labor has privatised assets, than it was when Labor first announced its privatisation plans.

Queensland’s debt was an estimated $44 billion when Labor first announced in June 2009, that it would privatise Queensland Rail, motorways, forests and ports, and after the planned sale of Rail, which is estimated to bring in between $6.3b and $7.1b, the State’s debt will actually be more.

The Opposition has asked the Government to adopt LNP’s policy and publish a detailed debt repayment strategy.

“Labor will have racked up more debt after the sale of Queensland Rail than there was when the sale was first announced. Indeed Labor will have racked up more debt after all its planned asset sales than there was when privatisation was first announced,” John-Paul Langbroek said. "Labor’s inability to rein in debt and waste was a key reason why Queensland had been stripped of its once cherished AAA credit rating."

He challenged the State Government to adopt the LNP’s policy to introduce a detailed debt repayment strategy.

“Today’s revelation confirms the economic hoax that Ms Bligh and her Labor Government are peddling by saying that the proceeds from privatisation will pay off debt," Langbroek says.

I mean, at around $70 billion debt, why should he worry about some silly report?

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