But Deloitte warned the Queensland economy was still running well below speed and many of the interstate migrants may be fleeing the mind-blowing costs of housing in Sydney, in more of a "push" than pull factor. With Sydney's "diabolical" housing affordability, people will be more attracted to moving interstate where they could get both a job and a more affordable home, the report said. While Sydney and Melbourne house prices were booming in recent years, Brisbane prices had edged up at low single-digit annual rates. But that moderation in price could be a drawcard, as aspirant homeowners packed up their bags and moved north, which could also give a boost to retail spending, and could increase demand for housing. The report said the pipeline continued to be led by the Adani Carmichael mine, but there was no guarantee it would go ahead, as several major banks ruled out funding it and the state government vowed to veto a $1 billion federal loan for rail infrastructure.

But early works had begun on the state's largest engineering project, the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail. The main source of the state's recent economic woes was the massive boost and then sharp slump in the construction of several large LNG projects. Business investment in Queensland rose to as high as one-quarter of the state's entire economy in 2013, before then halving in size by 2016. Exports have been rising with the state's new LNG capacity, but it did not produce as many jobs as the construction phase. However, Deloitte predicted the worst had well and truly passed, and the jobs market was surging, with almost 130,000 net new jobs in the past year alone.

"However, the earlier phase of tough times meant that there were a bunch of people waiting in the wings to take advantage of better news on job opportunities," the report reads. "The bottom line? There's good job growth, but the economy needs a lot more of it, because to date it hasn't put much of a dent in unemployment." Retail spending had been "pitifully weak", but was also now improving. Retail turnover growth was treading water in Queensland through much of 2017, but had picked up some momentum. "Retailers in Queensland aren't yet doing the happy dance, although we think things will continue to gradually improve," the report reads.