Beneficial bailouts
TOWNSVILLE’S chronic issue of law and order in recent years surely relates to the relatively impoverished situation the city finds itself in.
Several decades ago the famous economist Peter Bauer showed shown that government interventions, however well intentioned, never seem to rescue people from poverty.
If you don’t believe me just look out your window and ponder how, despite the billions of dollars poured into indigenous education, health, welfare, “Closing the Gap” and so on, we have more impoverished, barefoot people than ever wandering our streets.
Social security is supposed to offer opportunities to the relatively poor, but all over the world, areas of high social se- curity payments are always less secure in terms of property and personal safety.
Indirectly Janis Blackman ( TB, 16/ 11) hit the nail on the head when she denigrated the failure of the Queensland Labor Government to assist the bailout of QNI.
This has happened twice. They failed to support the nickel refinery and its employees in their hour of need in 2009 when BHP wanted to close the nickel refinery.
It was left to Clive Palmer ( love him or hate him) to see the huge opportunity in the always cyclical metal market.
Again two years ago they could have guaranteed a loan to keep QNI afloat. Instead their inaction resulted in the administrators placing it into receivership. The result was huge loss of direct and indirect employment all through the community, the impoverishment of the city and the loss of a great industrial enterprise.
Where else in the country were raw materials imported from overseas and value added using Australian labour and technology?
Although you may say taxpayers’ money shouldn’t prop up private companies, the deluge of taxpayer funds going into the pockets of “green energy” companies shows that issue isn’t a problem.
Anyone with half a brain knows that metal prices are cyclical. Even the loathed Bjelke- Petersen government could see that, and guaranteed some of QNI’s commercial debt. The result was that by covering the refinery during a period of low prices, the State Government ended up with 28 per cent of the project. The operations were further supported by Labor in the 1980s and 1990s.
And so it was with great pride that the then treasurer, Keith DeLacy, was able to announce in 1995 the sale of its interest for $ 280 million, almost $ 500 million in today’s terms.
He could also boast that the State Government would continue to receive royalties, rail charges, port charges, and payroll tax. And more importantly that the people of Townsville would continue to benefit from provision of infrastructure, 700 refinery jobs plus others at the port and on the railways; not to mention the multiplier effect of the wages through the community.
With an example like that why, in 2016, didn’t the Labor Party show any commonsense or compassion for Townsville?
Instead we are left with poverty, decaying suburbs, huge social security payments and rampant crime and insecurity.
We are now in the middle of an enormous battery metals boom. Cobalt and nickel, QNI’s main products, are components of lithium- ion batteries at the forefront of the boom. If the refinery had been encouraged to keep going Townsville and the whole nation would be benefiting from this.