Chapter 292: Chapter 260: Current Development Issues

“Your Majesty!” Seeing Arthur slowly approaching, the Cabinet members quickly stood up and respectfully said.

Arthur simply nodded, sat down in the main seat, and smiled: “Gentlemen, let’s begin. This is our first meeting after the reformation of our Cabinet.”

Hearing the words, everyone took their seats. However, compared to the previous meetings, this one had numerous additional cabinet seats, all of which were placed in front of the Cabinet Minister’s seat.

Interestingly, an empty seat was reserved between the Cabinet Ministers and the new seats, intended for the future Minister of Royal Affairs.

“I presume you are all acquainted with each other by now, so let’s get to the point!” Arthur said, “Although our Cabinet has gone through restructuring, our goal has never changed. Developing our country has always been our everlasting theme.”

“Prime Minister Walter, how many stages does this meeting have?” Arthur asked.

“Your Majesty, in addition to reporting on the progress we’ve made over the past six months, discussing the distribution of duties among the reformed Cabinet Government is a key agenda. In addition, the ongoing issues with governmental work and solutions for improvement will be addressed in this meeting,” Prime Minister Walter promptly stood up and explained.

“Let’s talk about the new distribution of duties within the reformed Cabinet Government first.” Arthur smiled and directly raised the most important issue for the Cabinet Ministers.

“The newly added Cabinet positions; the Chief Justice is responsible for the domestic judicial system, and the State Courts are also unified under the Chief Justice’s management. In judicial cases involving mid-to-high-ranking officials, both the judicial system and the House of Representatives have enforcement powers. The House of Representatives’ enforcement system is accountable to the House of Representatives, while the Chief Justice is accountable to the Cabinet Government and the Royal Parliament. Does anyone have anything to add?” Arthur looked around at everyone and asked with a smile.

Seeing everyone wisely shaking their heads, Arthur continued: “In addition to his ecclesiastical responsibilities, the Archbishop of Australasia is also the head of the New Protestant Association, coordinates and manages domestic issues related to Protestantism. However, other religions should also have the authority to deal with their internal religious matters.”

“As for the newly created Minister of State, he or she is generally responsible for assisting the Prime Minister in dealing with state affairs. Although the House of Representatives theoretically has supervisory power over the Cabinet Government, the final decision of the Cabinet Government belongs to the Royal Parliament and must be approved by me. As for the remaining Minister of Royal Affairs, he or she is responsible for handling affairs between the royal family and the government and is solely accountable to me.”

“This topic will be discussed this much for now, the most important things currently are the development of the country and the next steps for each department.” Arthur ended this topic and went on, “Let’s discuss the progress and problems related to the government’s work made so far this year. It would be perfect now that everyone is here, so we could brainstorm solutions to any problems.”

Seeing Arthur ending the topic swiftly, none of them dared to say more and quickly shifted their attention to the new subject.

Although Australasia’s development has been generally progressing well, it does not mean that there were no issues during its development.

Each minister looked at the summaries in their hands, carefully pondering the achievements made by their respective departments and the problems they were currently facing.

“You non-department ministers should also listen to the current problems and achievements of each department. As a member of the Cabinet Ministers, even if you are not working on governmental duties, it would be a contribution to the nation to come up with some suggestions,” Arthur said as he looked at the new position candidates.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” They all nodded in agreement.

“Let’s briefly talk about the achievements made so far by our government. First, let’s hear the good news from the government and then concentrate on solving the problems we have faced,” Arthur instructed.

“Your Majesty, up till now, all of our government’s development progress has been on a continuous upward trend. The number of immigrants in the first seven months of this year has already exceeded 420,000. At present, our domestic total population has reached 765,100, with non-immigrant population growth just over 80,000,” Prime Minister Walter stood up and summarized.

“The development of both industry and agriculture has also been steadily rising. According to our construction speed, Leonora Industrial Base is expected to start operational activities by the end of 1909, finish the first phase of construction by mid-1910, and then commence the second phase. If progress goes smoothly, we anticipate completing the second and third phases of the industrial area in 1913 and 1916, with the entire industrial area finished by 1918.”

Prime Minister Walter paused for a while before continuing: “Our fiscal revenue has also seen steady growth. Up to now, in just under eight months, our fiscal revenue has already surpassed 27 million Australian dollars, and it is expected that the total fiscal revenue for this year will surpass 40 million Australian dollars.”

“Up until now, our fiscal expenditure is approximately 33 million Australian dollars, with a fiscal deficit of about 6 million Australian Dollars. However, this is due to the construction of three battleships and the Leonora Industrial Base. If there are not too many constructions in the second half of the year, we expect that our fiscal conditions can still return to a surplus,” explained Prime Minister Walter.

The developmental construction of Australasia has been underway for eight years, and it is just beginning to turn its deficit into a surplus.