Dear ,

Welcome to the new financial year, and let's hope it will be more financial for all of us than the last ended-up being, what with superannuation balances down, and many people facing loss of income, or worse, loss of a job.

You're well-overdue for a report on our activities, but there has been so much happening that reporting had to sit to one side for a few weeks.

Next in our COVID-19 series

We have two online seminars scheduled for our COVID-19 series. Click here to book for "Historic crashes, and how this one is different" with Dr Peter Jonson this Monday July 6 at 6:00 pm.

On Monday July 20 at 12:30 pm Professor Tony Makin and Hon Kate Carnell will be discussing Where does the economic response to COVID-19 leave us? Bookings will open soon.

Policy Development

Energy
You won't find an Australian government, or opposition, that is not promising to get to net zero CO2 emissions sometime in the future, and you won't find one with any idea of the engineering difficulties entailed in getting there.

On Monday July 13 at 6:00 pm we will be launching a policy discussion paper by Dr Tom Biegler FAATE, a former Head of CSIRO's Division of Mineral Chemistry, on the need for a workable energy policy to meet our ambitious climate targets. Tom looks at the challenges of electrifying the whole economy.

As an institute we have adopted a cautious approach to CO2 abatement. While we understand that a cooler earth is a much bigger problem than a warmer one, we also acknowledge that our government has signed-up to the Paris Agreement and that there is tremendous international pressure to reduce emissions.

Australia therefore needs to adopt a least harm approach. That means opposing dead-end, but popular, renewable energy solutions as well as raising understanding of the various economic, environmental and security implications of various policy options. We still think a new coal-fired power station for Queensland makes sense (although the 2 GW hydro proposal for the New Bradfield Scheme would make this moot).

COVID-19
Following-on from our webinar with Professor Paul Frijters I coordinated an open letter signed by 30 public intellectuals and others calling on the federal government to open-up the economy now, and to implement a range of policy options so that decision making can be more effective and transparent.

You can download the open letter from here.

I also made a submission to the Economics and Governance Committee's inquiry into the State Government's economic response to COVID-19, which I can't show you until the end of the week and submissions are allowed to be public. It was a combination of points made in the open letter plus my email to MLAs regarding the changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (download a copy here).

Some of us are in the danger zone for COVID-19, but then we are also at risk from the annual influenza outbreaks as well as a variety of other diseases, and never before have we euthanised whole swathes of the economy to deal with a disease outbreak. It's not sustainable, and that will become obvious as time goes on.

Housing
Our latest Housing Affordability Index report was released on Tuesday. It showed that housing affordability increased during the March Quarter 2020. Unfortunately, I expect housing to get more affordable again in the next 12 months, or more. I say "unfortunately" because my expectation is built on the effects of the COVID Depression that we have caused by government action. So while housing will be more affordable it will partly be because fewer people can afford housing at all, so it will represent a change caused by the general economy, rather than the housing market itself adjusting to provide enough supply.

Amendments to the Electoral Act
I am still coming to grips with the amendments that have been made to the Queensland Electoral Act. The amendments that were on the notice paper, were amended with virtually no notice, with a further 229 amendments.

The act may nullify some of the rulings by Mr Justice Applegarth in our case against the ECQ. For example, while he said that it was possible to campaign on issues during an election campaign and receive funding from property developers, the amendments broaden what constitutes electoral activity in a way that might bring us within the ambit of the act. It will mean that we will need to open a specific campaign account and only fund the broad range of activities caught under the new amendments as electoral expenditure through that account. We may also need to keep a database of supporters who are property developers, within the meaning of the act.

AIP v ECQ
As we expected costs were awarded against us in our case against the ECQ. The judge did not give us any credit for having won on a number of points, or for having performed a public service by running the action to clarify the provisions of the act. At the moment I have an estimated range from our solicitors for what those costs will be, but we haven't received the exact claim from the other side, so all we have is an estimate. You'll be one of the first to know when we get the agreed figure, as we are going to have to run a fundraising campaign! Given the judge's rulings, which do allow property developers to be involved in election campaigns, we think it was money well-spent, and hope you do too.

Conclusion
With the social isolation measures it's been a long time since I've seen most of our members face to face, but as the state continues to open-up I'm looking to start doing regular functions in our offices again.

Keep checking your emails as there should be some announcements soon.

Thanks for your support.

Regards,

Graham Young
Executive Director