QLD gets a taste of WA disaster to come

By Leith van Onselen

Last month, new Queensland Treasurer, Curtis Pitt, made waves when he argued that the state economy was in recession in late 2014 – a view supported by the latest national accounts, which showed Queensland state final demand contracting for seven consecutive quarters in trend terms (see next chart).

Yesterday, Pitt revealed a hit of almost $3 billion to Queensland’s bottom line, as weaker commodity prices and a softer global outlook will force the state to write down $2.98 billion of mining royalties over the next four years, which will affect next month’s State Budget.