Would you like $1.37 billion dollars worth of Queensland Government assets for $603 million dollars?
Friday, 18 June 2010 09:00
The Queensland Government has just sold the assets of Forest Plantations Queensland (the old Forestry Commission) to Hancock Timber Resources Group for $603 million and touted publicly that that was a good deal.
On reviewing the State Government’s Annual Report of those assets, the asset values disclosed by the State Government are as follows:-
Table 1 Assets FPQ
| 2008-09 | 2007-08 | |
| Forestry Products Queensland | $ million | |
| Biological assets (trees) | 1,167 | 1,174 |
| Property, plant and equipment (incl. land) | 145 | 122 |
| Other assets (incl. cash and inventories) | 57 | 75 |
| Total assets | 1,370 | 1,371 |
That means that the State Government has in effect sold $1.37 billion dollars worth of our community owned timber and crown land assets for a mere $603 million. If as a taxpayer and Queenslander that doesn’t outrage you I don’t know what would.
This is the end result of a government that was completely incompetent in the management of State debt as I have discussed on many occasions previously and now has to sell our publicly owned assets in a huge fire sale at ridiculous prices into capital markets that, for these types of assets, are still under considerable strain.The Forest Plantation Queensland assets were the first of many asset sales including the Port of Brisbane, the Port of Brisbane Motorway, Queensland Motorways, Queensland Rail and just about anything else that isn’t bolted down.
As Queenslanders this should make us both very sad and very angry that our financial position and credit rating have been so badly damaged by this Government that we have to sell assets at these sort of prices.
Some time ago I wrote an article “if you think State Governments don’t matter, just have a look at what happens when you get a bad one” and in that article I cited the NSW Government.
Unfortunately it has been prophetically true that this Queensland Government has so mishandled the State’s finances that not only are we selling public assets at extreme discounts but we are ramping up taxes on almost everything from motor vehicles to property at a rate that has rapidly evaporated Queensland’s once strong competitive advantage as a cheaper State to live and do business.