Politics Analysis

Data shows Queensland Labor's economy outperforms other states again

By | | comments |
Queensland Premier Steven Miles (Screenshot via YouTube)

As elections approach, the mainstream media are ramping up efforts to deceive voters into reinstalling the CoalitionAlan Austin reports.

AUSTRALIA'S ECONOMY is travelling well. Queensland’s economy is in exceptionally good shape relative to the other states. These realities were confirmed last week in the quarterly national accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Unfortunately many Australian citizens, especially in Queensland, are unaware of these truths because of constant mainstream news misreporting. With the Queensland State  Election set for October, the deceptions are becoming more insidious.

Australia is now climbing all global rankings — up from near the bottom on many of them two years ago. Last week’s quarterly growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was 0.13%. That makes 13 consecutive positive quarters in an era of global gloom.

Of the 38 advanced OECD members, only three others share this good fortune — Belgium, Mexico and Slovakia. Of these four, Australia’s growth has been strongest.

We saw with last month’s Budget that Australia and Denmark are the only economies in the world to have delivered consecutive surpluses, reduced debt to GDP twice and kept average wealth per person above USD$350,000 (AU$520,000).

IA reported earlier that Australia has the world’s only economy with top credit ratings, both jobless and inflation rates below 4%, and positive GDP growth every quarter last year.

Queensland’s steady gains

Last Wednesday’s quarterly accounts show Queensland leads all states in the enjoyment of the consumption of goods and services, or what the boffins call "final demand". Western Australia and the Northern Territory actually went backwards, while Victoria stalled.

Only the Capital Territory surpassed Queensland.

(Source: Australian National Accounts | abs.gov.au)

Higher incomes in Queensland

Last Wednesday’s accounts enable us to compare compensation to employees today with the same measure four years ago, pre-COVID-19.

Queenslanders have clearly pocketed the best gains.

(Source: Australian National Accounts | abs.gov.au)

This is partly explained by population growth, but not entirely. Queensland’s population increased by just 7.5% over that period. This was lower than Western Australia’s increase of 8.7% and only marginally stronger than the ACT’s 6.9%.

Strong jobs growth

The increase in the number of employed people over the last five years has also been strongest in Queensland, with April jobs at 2,950,000, up from 2,522,000 in April 2019.

That’s a hefty lift of 17.0%.

(Source: Labour Force, Australia | abs.gov.au)

The next best were Western Australia with 16.4%, the ACT with 14.6% and Victoria well back at 11.3%. The others trail further, yielding a national gain of just 11.9%.

Queensland's leading on this metric is explained partly by population growth but also by sound economic management.

Fiscal management leader

State government deficits and debt are arguably the outcomes which show most clearly the success of the Palaszczuk and Miles Governments in achieving their objectives since Labor took office in February 2015.

Queensland generated a record government surplus of $13.93 billion in 2022-23, up substantially from the previous record in 2021-22 of $4.28 billion.

This was assisted by the Albanese Government providing advance payments under the Disaster Recovery Financial Arrangements and Social Housing Accelerator program in 2022-23.

According to Queensland’s Treasury, these record surpluses enable substantial cost-of-living measures to support Queensland families and businesses, while also funding the state’s current extensive infrastructure program.

Queensland leading the nation in debt

ABS data shows that in 2013-14, when Queensland last had a Liberal-National Government, Queensland had the worst debt of all states.

(Source: Government Finance Statistics | abs.gov.au)

Fortunes fluctuated thereafter through the recovery from the global financial crisis. All states and the Commonwealth had to borrow in 2020 to respond to the pandemic.

The latest figures confirm Queensland now has the strongest net savings status.

The quantum of Queensland’s net lending as at June 2023 – according to the Bureau of Statistics – was $5.88 billion. The next highest was Western Australia, currently enjoying a nifty run of surpluses, with $2.50 billion.

All other states were in net debt, South Australia and Tasmania only moderately so. New South Wales, in contrast, was in serious hock to the tune of $24.81 billion, with Victoria not far adrift owing a thumping $21.98 billion.

Inflation

The latest ABS information on the consumer price index shows Brisbane’s annual increase, as in Perth, at 3.4%, which is below the national average of 3.6%. Brisbane’s inflation is higher than that of Darwin, Hobart and Canberra but lower than that of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Mainstream media mendacity

Many Queenslanders have no clue how well their Government has been serving them because they are bashed over the head day in and day out with highly negative “stories” of hardship, incompetence and failure.

In just the last three days, headlines in the Brisbane Courier Mail online included:

Fortunately, the majority of Queenslanders resisted media calls to replace the Labor Government with the incompetent Opposition at the last two elections.

We shall see if they do so again.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001.

Related Articles

Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.

 
Recent articles by Alan Austin
2025: Democracy under threat again, notably in the Americas

The new year offers opportunities for voters to make the world calmer and safer ...  
Economics reporters lie and cheat to deviously derail Labor

Australia’s mainstream newsrooms are deploying multiple devious tactics to ...  
Feeble defence from ABC confirms abject failure to report Labor accurately

A recent interview on ABC was the subject of a formal complaint. The official ...  
Join the conversation
comments powered by Disqus

Support Fearless Journalism

If you got something from this article, please consider making a one-off donation to support fearless journalism.

Single Donation

$

Support IAIndependent Australia

Subscribe to IA and investigate Australia today.

Close Subscribe Donate