Captain Bligh sets sail to “rob the treasury” in Canberra

Reader Bushie from Burnett sent in this little ditty and the associated press item from The Courier Mail:

With the Ship of State virtually rudderless, Captain Bligh is off to rob the treasury in Canberra. With the economic storm worsening and as the Ship flounders towards the reef (Election date), the captain and crew are panicking.

Anna Bligh makes dash to Canberra for infrastructure cash

Article from: Michael Madigan, John McCarthy and Melanie Chrisitansen
January 28, 2009 11:00pm
ANNA Bligh has made a mercy dash to Canberra in the hope of accelerating multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects to stave off a state recession.
The Premier’s trip came as inflation posted its biggest quarterly fall in more than a decade, slashing the annual rate from 5 per cent to 3.7 per cent in the face of a dramatic slowing in growth.

Ms Bligh is concerned resource-rich Queensland is dangerously exposed to the global financial crisis.

“Our own data shows that we are seeing a deterioration of the Queensland economy and it’s happened very rapidly,” she said.

Ms Bligh had a breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The two agreed a national, co-ordinated bout of pump priming was needed.

Ms Bligh refused to reveal which projects would take priority but said the pair had agreed to “put the pedal to the metal” on major projects.

“Clearly these are unprecedented times and the PM and I are agreed to act swiftly, and carefully,” she said.

“By necessity our conversations are confidential while we get more detail on the proposals before us.”

The Consumer Price Index fell 0.3 percentage points in the December quarter, the largest quarterly fall since 1997, taking inflation to 3.7 per cent.

The figures show the decline was partially due to the drop in the price of petrol, down about 18 per cent over the quarter.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the inflation figures were a timely reminder of the effects of the financial slowdown.

“I think it’s now clear that inflation in Australia is subsiding – as it is of course around the world – and it’s subsiding in response to the global financial crisis which is slowing growth dramatically in the global economy,” Mr Swan said.

The CPI figures also showed rising food bills had kept the financial pressure on Brisbane consumers.

The overall CPI for Brisbane fell by 0.2 percentage points in the last three months of 2008 – a smaller decline than most other capital cities.

Food prices in Brisbane jumped 2.7 per cent, more than twice the increase in Perth.

The data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday showed Brisbane food bills were driven up partly by an 8.8 per cent spike in fruit and vegetable prices.

Last night the International Monetary Fund warned advanced economies were suffering their “deepest recession” since World War II.

The grim warning almost ensures the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates by up to 1 percentage point on Tuesday.

The IMF report – which will be released today in Washington – forecasts world economic growth to collapse from 3.4 per cent in 2008 to 0.5 per cent this year.

Advanced economies including the US, Europe, Japan and Australia will contract by an average 2 per cent for the year.

The economy of China is tipped to grow 6.7 per cent, down from 9 per cent last year.

This is particularly bad for Australia, with the IMF reporting that “anaemic global growth has reversed the commodity price boom”.

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Contracting economies means RECESSION. If the economies contract much more than the 2% forecast above, then it would be a DEPRESSION. Now is definitely not a good time to be chasing fools gold with an expensive emissions trading scheme and the associated tax burden.  It wasn’t a good idea before this – man made CO2 is NOT causing catastrophic global warming. An ETS will not reduce world CO2 emissions.