Energy Efficiency

Smart State … Well Beattie jumped before he was pushed (into a quarter of a million $ job all expenses paid by the Queensland public to sell the beneifts of Americans doing business in OZ; what with for christ’s sake, the USA is bankrupt) and will Anna Bligh hand the posioned chalice to Paul Lucas (and what is her payoff at our expense ?).

So what have we got to look forward to apart from paying an extra 9.2 cents per litre for petrol from July 1st 2009.

The incompotent RACQ (long a supporter of Labor government) went through the motions with a pitiful 50,000 signature petition (what with 4 million of us living in Queensland ?) and they say the price rise equates to an extra $172 a year for a 6 cylinder car, but so what …!

The reality is that we never got the full benefit of the subsidy anyway.

Premier Anna – spend $60 million on an AFL ground – Bligh told Parliament today the 8.4 cents a litre subsidy (worth 9.2 cents to motorists when GST is added), was a luxury the state could not afford; that it would save $300 million in interest savings over the next four years as she said ‘we currently spend more than $500 million a year in our fuel subsidy program’; what iterest rate is that calcualted at Ms Bligh ? Of course having a *Triple A credit rating is good, but only if you need to borrow money because you’re living beyiobnd your means; but it should give Queenslanders a scare to know this measure will ‘save’ more than $2.4 billion over four years; what is the budget defict anyway or is Beatties over use of the FOI legislation also part of Ms Bligh plan ?

* [In Febuary credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) revised down the Queensland State Government's credit rating of Queensland Treasury Corporation, the government's debt borrowing agency, from AAA to AA+; the report noted Queensland's "projected deteriorating budgetary performance, which is a result of both declining revenues and structural operating expenditure" – spin speak for poor management.]

The part that got me laugning was the Transport Minister (Rachel Nolan) claiming ‘some of the money saved on the fuel subsidy would be redirected towards funding public transport services’, is that after they’ve sold off Gueensland Rail ? And whats the other big ‘to do’ trotted out every election; let me guess running our hospitals, running our schools (but under-paying the teachers), police (under paying the officers) and other vital services ?

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has also confirmed plans to sell-off state-owned railway, port and forestry assets in a ‘desperate bid to plug a black hole’ in the upcoming state budget. She claims – in a depresed global economic market – she will sell off valuable (less valuable now of course) things like her jet (only joking), the Port of Brisbane, Queensland Motorways, Queensland Rail’s coal haulage business, including the Abbot Point Coal Terminal and Forestry Plantations Queensland, in a bid to raise $15 billion needed to help reduce the budget’s deficit. Anna, just stop people moving up here, instead, pay them to go back ‘home’, it will be far cheaper. [The New South Welsh immigrants still barack proudly for the Blues !]

Time to keep a stiff uper lip (must be the Botox) and walk the plank Ms Bligh …