Your afternoon Briefing: Queensland’s ‘Band-Aid budget’

Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.

Hello readers. Today’s Queensland’s budget has targeted the top end of town but done nothing about debt. Meanwhile, Qantas is flying.

 

Bottom line: Band-Aid budget

On superficial cuts, Band-Aids work. But Queensland’s budget suggests the state’s economic problems are much deeper, writes Sarah Elks.

“It has done little to address the serious systemic challenges that face the state’s bottom line: a skyrocketing debt bill, sluggish economic growth, a ballooning bureaucracy and rampant government spending.”

—

 

Qantas rivals fall away

Qantas is growing international market share as competition for flights to Australia drops off.

The latest international airline activity report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics revealed Qantas carried 18.2 per cent of all travellers in and out of the country in March, up from 16.9 per cent the same time last year.

—

 

The rise of activist retirees

We shall know them by their political agenda. Ladies and gents, we give you the Activist Retiree.

To gain admittance to a secret meeting, would-be attendees approach the door, knock three times and say the phrase “ladies a plate”, which completely flummoxes and dissuades Millennials but which makes perfect sense to a mixed gathering of boomer retirees, writes Bernard Salt.

—

 

Trash tycoon’s waste-to-energy push

Waste king and super-yacht ­aficionado Ian Malouf is pushing ahead with plans for a waste-to-energy plant near Sydney as pressure mounts for Australia to treat its garbage at home.

Sending mixed waste to Asia where what is not recycled can be burnt in the open or tossed into rivers has been the dirty secret of Australia’s waste business.

—

ASX highest since GFC

Australian stocks were on a tear in Tuesday’s trade, closing at their highest levels since November 2007.

Catching up with global market optimism after a public holiday on Monday, the S & P ASX200 clocked its second best daily gain for the year, adding 102 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 6546.3.

—

Labor Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen speaks to the media during a press conference in Sydney, Wednesday, May 22, 2019. Chris Bowen has announced that he has withdrawn his bid for the Labor leadership position. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi) NO ARCHIVING

M agic pudding a mirage

Former Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen misjudged the appetite for lashings of new taxes, writes Judith Sloan.

—