Last Tuesday the Queensland treasurer Cameron Dick delivered his state's budget. He announced a surplus of $12.3 billion, an astonishing feat, the largest budget surplus ever recorded by any state in Australian history.
There is one reason for the extraordinary surplus, said Mr Dick, Queensland's new progressive coal royalties. It's a simple story. Supply chain interruptions, flooding along Australia's east coast, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine saw world coal prices rise dramatically from lows in 2020.
