This article is to engage the issues of falling national revenues due to price declines for fossil fuels, the ongoing commentary and the PM’s 8 January 2015 statement with its attendant criticisms. I am going to focus on the role of the real estate and construction sectors in this unfolding series of serious challenges.
This is the graph and table from my previous budget commentary ‘A Fistful of Dollars‘ to illustrate the trend in terms of how successive governments have attempted to balance revenues and expenditure.
| Year | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
| Revenue | $24,016 | $34,129 | $35,126 | $40,381 | $49,465 | $36,664 | $41,284 | $47,000 | $50,736 | $55,041 | $60,351 |
| Expenditure | $27,918 | $34,119 | $38,054 | $42,261 | $44,206 | $36,915 | $49,016 | $54,600 | $58,405 | $61,398 | $64,664 |
| Surplus/Deficit | -$3,902 | $10 | -$2,928 | -$1,880 | $5,259 | -$252 | -$7,732 | -$7,600 | -$7,669 | -$6,357 | -$4,313 |
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