Bligh explains plans for asset sales

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDSep 7 2010

According to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, new developments are on the horizon only if her Government continues with the sell off of $15 billion of public assets. She revealed this in her annual State of the State address at the mid point of her term in Government yesterday while reviewing the past 18 months and forecasting the next stage of the state's development.

She revealed the lack of understanding of her plans from the public saying, “Frankly I expect more bad polls for the Government as we complete the task we have set ourselves…'People can say what they like about our Government but I don't think anyone can accuse us of being poll driven…We understand that some of this is unpopular but it is unquestionably the right thing to do and we are committed to finishing the task.”

Speaking to the Committee of Economic Development of Australia she said she had underestimated the public's attitude towards the privatization of freight, ports and forests. She said, “I think we as a Government underestimated the sense of attachment that many Queenslanders have to some of the assets that we think should be put into the market…With the benefit of hindsight we might have talked about it differently early on or talked about it in a much more upfront way -- it would have been out talking to people more often early on when we first made the decision…I thought it was so clear how important our building program was that people would understand that.”

She assured that this decision was taken by her Government on the advice of Treasury after last year's March election. “I know there is a lot of speculation about this, I can put my hand on my heart and say we did not make any decision to sell assets until after the election,” she said. She said that a new era of development was coming in Queensland but that required new investments in energy, export capacity and freight networks. “We simply cannot realise that potential without being prepared to grab the opportunities with both hands, make the difficult decisions to make it possible and, having made those decisions, to stay the course and see it through…And that is exactly what I intend to do.”