Are you really concerned about decreasing child homelessness or affordable housing for the poor or addressing children’s obesity rates; would you put your money where your concern lies? What if you could recoup your outlay at the end of a specified term and receive a yearly dividend if set targets were being achieved, government guaranteed? Appealing! Social benefit bonds is a relatively new way in Australia state governments are delivering social initiatives expected of them without requiring an initial outlay of taxpayers’ money. The private sector provides the funds. Government pay on achievement of set outcomes. And partly due to this it is expected the cost will be a lot less for the social initiative to be implemented. A current social benefit bond funded project in New South Wales aimed at reducing the number of children in foster care is expected to save the state government around $80M over 16 years. The first year dividend (coupon) return was 7.5%. Could social benefit bonds be part of the solution for the new Queensland government to deliver services without increasing debt or charges? It certainly deserves thorough investigation. Government being able to access private capital to fund its social projects, without selling any assets! Who could be prepared to risk their money on such projects? Anyone; superannuation funds, insurance companies, businesses seeking a return and/or indicating on their balance sheet their social corporate conscious, individuals. QBE has indicated an interest to invest $111M into social benefit bonds, much of it globally as limited opportunities exist in Australia. Much like buying shares in public companies the motivation to invest in social benefit bonds can be emotional or purely business based. If Premier Anna Palaszczuk is to sell her ministry as new Labor then it needs to bring new ideas to the table. Social bonds have been in existence internationally for around 5 years. Government still drives the initiatives it wishes to provide by granting the payout guarantee on performance. Organisations responsible for the initiative have more flexibility in how the outcomes are achieved without the shackles of government micro management of the funds. There appears a lot going for social benefit bonds, hopefully the new Queensland cabinet thinks similarly.