Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The clear alternative in the Queensland election is that Labor stands for jobs and the Liberals and Nationals stand for job cuts. It is as simple as that. They do not like the fact that the Liberal National Party leader in Queensland, Mr Springborg, the job destroyer, has said that he will abolish a billion dollars from the budget and sack 12,000 public servants engaged in service delivery. That is the contrast between Labor, with an infrastructure plan to invest in the future in Queensland, and the Liberals and Nationals in Queensland, who are dedicated to sacking 12,000 workers. That is the clear contrast—jobs versus job cuts—and those sitting on the front bench of the Liberal Party should reflect long and hard on the impact of pulling a billion dollars out of a state budget and where that flows through in terms of job cuts. So I say to the honourable member for Fadden: when it comes to jobs and the alternative, it is absolutely clear-cut that, when you look at Mr Springborg’s policy, it is nothing short of job destruction 101—sacking 12,000 workers. If you have a problem with unemployment through the global recession, the Liberal National Party response is: add to that unemployment by making another 12,000 unemployed. That is simply wrong, wrong, wrong.

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