Guest Speakers:
Gene Tunny
Director, Adept Economics
Queensland’s economic outlook in a time of high State debt, President Trump and Brexit
Gene will discuss the economic outlook for Queensland and the rest of Australia, homing in on expected infrastructure investment and what the upcoming federal election may bring. He will consider highly uncertain factors such as Brexit, the Trump administration, the US-China trade war, and China’s economic slowdown. Gene will also discuss the changes to negative gearing and capital gains taxation proposed by the federal Opposition, based on his own consulting and published research work.
Gene Tunny is the Director of Adept Economics, a Brisbane-based consultancy which specialises in economic modelling and cost-benefit analysis, and he was formerly an Australian Treasury official. He is Vice-President of the Economic Society of Australia (Queensland) and is a Director of Early Childhood Intervention Australia. Gene is the author of the blog Queensland Economy Watch, and appears frequently in state and national media commenting on economic issues. In late 2018, Gene’s book Beautiful One Day, Broke the Next: Queensland’s Public Finances since Sir Joh and Sir Leo was published by Connor Court.
Paul Newman
General Manager, Dial Before you Dig Queensland
Is Your Business Ahead of the Game?
Dial Before You Dig is a FREE national referral service designed to assist in preventing damage and disruption to Australia’s vast infrastructure networks which provide essential services we use every day. Over the past five years there have been a number of developments that have had an impact on damage prevention. As a result DBYD have introduced into our business measures to ensure all people carrying out excavation are provided with the knowledge and experience to avoid costly damages, project downtimes and more importantly serious injuries or fatalities. These initiatives will be the focus of the presentation.
Paul Newman is the General Manager of Dial Before You Dig Queensland, a position he has held for the past ten years. Paul started his career as a carpenter followed by working for Australia’s largest telecommunications carrier (Telecom/Telstra) over a 23-year period. The last seven years in Telstra Paul’s role was investigating and reporting on all major damages in Queensland, on Telstra’s optic fibre cable network. Paul was responsible for leading a team of field specialists in damage minimisation to ensure Telstra’s network was not being put at jeopardy by civil construction activities. Paul leads a dedicated team in Queensland who are driving the safe digging message across the state. Paul has been instrumental in the development and rollout in Australia with the Locator Certification Program which commenced in July 2015 and recognised as a national certification. Paul is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
