Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) condemns the Queensland Government for failing the people of Queensland;

(2) notes that:

(a) Queensland is leading the nation on job losses;

(b) more than 30,000 jobs have disappeared from Queensland in the last year and almost 40,000 people have given up looking;

(c) Queensland's participation rate is at a more than 20-year low and more people are giving up looking for work; and

(d) Queensland is in a jobs crisis and it is clear that the Premier of Queensland has no plan for the future; and

(3) calls on the Queensland Government to end its empty rhetoric on jobs and actually start delivering for the people of Queensland.

It was just a few short weeks ago that we were treated to the news that the Queensland government had miraculously delivered a jobs budget in my home state of Queensland. In fact, the term was a jobs 'bonanza', a veritable goldmine of opportunities for our jobseekers. The Palasczczuk government promised this, but in the same breath they admitted they could not even guarantee that Queensland's unemployment rate would fall below six per cent in the foreseeable future.

What a sham it is from this state government that keeps spouting the rhetoric that it is providing for Queensland but in reality there is no clear strategy for boosting employment figures. Current figures show that Queensland still has the second-worst unemployment rate in Australia. I will acknowledge that some 42,700 jobs were created last year but just 6,600 of them were full-time positions and, in reality, 11,200 full-time jobs were lost just last month. The unemployment rate in Queensland has not budged from 6.3 per cent since the beginning of this year, and the gap between the Queensland and the Australian unemployment rate has tripled.

It is true that Queensland's unemployment picture looks prettier currently but this has only been because of a declining participation rate of jobseekers. Fewer people are actively participating in the labour market, meaning they are not reflected in the unemployment numbers, which is artificially lowering the headline unemployment rate. If the participation rate in Queensland had actually remained steady instead of falling, as it has under the Labor government, the trend unemployment rate in Queensland would actually be about seven per cent. Instead of leading the nation in job creation and job security as we should be, we see record unemployment rates in Townsville and sky-high youth unemployment rates in regional centres. We are fighting for the wooden spoon, for last place. That is not where a state like Queensland should be. But this was not always the case.

When Labor came to power, Queensland's unemployment rate was equal with Victoria, just behind New South Wales, and well ahead of South Australia and Tasmania. So what has happened? I know the effects of this softly softly Labor government are being felt in my own electorate of Forde, with some 2,000 jobs disappearing from the Logan Beaudesert region in the past year. It is clear Queenslanders are being let down and left behind by the Palaszczuk Labor government.

In a refreshing contrast to the same old rhetoric we are getting from state Labor, the state opposition leader, Tim Nicholls, recently highlighted in his budget reply speech how too many rules exist in Queensland that stifle enterprise and hamstring entrepreneurship, with the ultimate price being paid but fewer jobs created. Mr Nicholls and the state LNP have committed to focusing on six key drivers to drive jobs and diversity in the economy: tourism, agriculture, resources, construction and manufacturing, science and technology, and education.

It is the state LNP that clearly has a plan for the future, not one working off some arbitrary ideology of politics that delivers no real outcomes for Queenslanders. Compounding this, we at a federal level are seeking to support jobseekers in Queensland. Our tax cuts for the small business sector are specifically aimed at helping drive down unemployment figures in local communities and at giving employers the confidence they need to take on new and well trained staff. We are committed to creating job opportunities in Queensland but we cannot continue to be hamstrung by the Palaszczuk state Labor government, a government that continues to promise a whole lot and deliver a whole lot less.

Queenslanders are crying out for leadership on this issue. I call on the Queensland state government to cease its hollow arguments on job creation, to stop the dithering and the debating, and to actually start working to create and provide employment opportunities in our great state of Queensland.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It beggars belief that the member for Forde thinks this is a smart strategy, coming into this place. Of all the things he could talk about, I know he does not want to talk about cutting penalty rates. I know he does not want to talk about cutting health and education services in his electorate. I know he does not want to talk about how he has cut the energy supplement for the pensioners in his electorate. So what is the go? He gets a phone call from the leader of the opposition's office in Brisbane that says, 'Member for Forde, we need your help.' Do not take my word for it. This is their current Leader of the Opposition in Queensland, Tim Nicholls, of whom Senator Brandis said off microphone that the problem with him is that he is very, very ordinary. They are your words.

So the old member for Forde rolls in here. What did they say about the budget in the member for Forde's electorate just last week? 'Budget bonanza'. That is in his own local paper. There he goes, scurrying out of the chamber. He is afraid to hear the debate. Having done the LNP dirty work in this place, he runs out of the chamber. The paper says:

LOGAN was well looked after in Treasurer Curtis Pitt's third Budget with the city getting nearly $900 million in funding …

So it is such a bad budget his own local paper calls it a budget bonanza.

But let's just deal with this unemployment nonsense. Let's put it on the table. When the LNP left office under Campbell Newman—they do not mention his name anymore—the unemployment rate in Queensland was 7.1 per cent. It actually grew to one of the highest in Australia. Let's remember what the member for Fisher and the member for Fairfax aided and abetted when they were campaigning out there for Campbell Newman: 14,000 public servants ripped out of their employment. We know what happened: unemployment did not just go up and up but went to an 11-year high. Electricity prices did not just go up but went up by 43 per cent. Waiting lists went up. One hundred thousand people were left waiting in the waiting rooms of hospitals. This was before the member for Farrer ripped out $10 billion from Queensland hospitals.

This is what happens over and over again when it comes to frontline services and looking at employment, and also the dignity. Who can forget what the LNP said when they sacked people? The then Premier, a failed Premier, said, 'We're going to have to get the Pooper Scooper out.' That is how he described public servants, and the LNP absolutely relished it. It was not good enough only to sell off our essential assets. Then who can forget last week? I take the point made by the member for Forde when he was talking about the member for Clayfield's speech last week about the budget. They have now committed to not sack public servants. They have now signed another contract. Well, the member for Clayfield is a lawyer. He should be sued, because he signed the first contract. Remember that, before the election? 'Public servants have got nothing to worry about.' The first thing they did under that failed experiment of Campbell Newman, an absolute failure, was to sack frontline nurses and hospital workers, and they were proud of it. They thought it was the right decision. I will tell you what they also did in my electorate: they closed the Barrett Adolescent Centre without any consultation. They closed a youth support hospital for young people most at risk, and we know the tragic, tragic results of closing that frontline service.

The Palaszczuk Labor government is a government that believes in the dignity of work. It does not throw people on the scrap heap. It does not just sack people by text message. That is the LNP's record in Queensland, and they have the gall to come in here. Under their watch, we saw the loss of 12,900 full-time jobs, and the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 7.1 per cent. Unemployment in Queensland is too high. The government know that, and they are working day in, day out to make sure that there are jobs—jobs for the future, jobs in the regions and jobs in places like Townsville. It was the state Labor government and the federal Labor opposition, under the leadership of the member for Herbert, which delivered the announcement and now the reality of a Townsville stadium. If it had not been for that advocacy and that leadership, once again, the regions would be neglected by this government. We know that right across the state, whether it comes to employment or to health and education services, Queenslanders can only rely on a state Labor government under Annastacia Palaszczuk's leadership.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the motion moved by my learned friend. This is like a tale of two cities—a tale of two budgets. The Queensland government handed down its budget just last week. I note that the member for Oxley, whilst using a prop of a newspaper, talked about a jobs bonanza for Logan. Let me tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, there was no such newspaper front page on the Sunshine Coast Daily. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Those opposite and the state members of the Labor Party do not care about the Sunshine Coast.

Let me talk a little bit about the two budgets in comparison. Let's look at the federal budget. It is all about jobs. The federal budget for the Sunshine Coast provided a $929.3 million upgrade between Caloundra Road and the Sunshine Motorway. That is an 80-20 split; I will give them that much. We also provided $650 million in highway upgrades south of Caloundra. Interestingly, the state Labor Party did not provide a brass razoo for upgrades to the Bruce Highway south of Caloundra. There was no mention, no nothing!

A government member: Their heads are down now! Look at their heads, they are down!

Funny about that, isn't it? On our side of the fence we also provided $182.6 million for critical safety upgrades, and another $221 million has been invested in high-risk rural parts of the highway.

Honourable members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am having trouble hearing the debate here.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am having trouble hearing myself. There is $180 million for works at the Nambour roundabout. There is a total of $1.6 billion that the federal government is spending on the Bruce Highway in my neck of the woods and the neck of the woods of the member for Fairfax. We have also committed to a $10 billion National Rail Program.

We are supporting small businesses. We have extended the $20,000 instant asset write-off, we have provided $300 million to incentivise the cutting of red tape and we have provided a tax cut to small businesses of 27½ per cent. We are also supporting education because education delivers the jobs of the future. The federal government has committed $266 million extra over 10 years for schools in Fisher. It is an average of $7½ million per school. That is not to mention the $5 million commitment for the Thompson Institute in my seat of Fisher for research into mental health. I know the other side will not give that a hard time; I am sure they will be supporting that.

Let's look at the Queensland budget: zero for the rail duplication between Beerburrum and Nambour, zero for the Bruce Highway south of Caloundra and zero for the Mooloolah River interchange. There is no new money for the Sunshine Motorway north of Pacific Paradise and no new money for the Bruce Highway between Caloundra Road and the Sunshine Motorway. The allocation for capital purchases for the whole region was worse than inner Brisbane alone or in Ipswich, Darling Downs, Gold Coast, Townsville or Fitzroy. The Sunshine Coast got left behind.

Today I notice that the Minister for Main Roads, Road Safety and Ports, Mark Bailey, has put out an announcement. Despite the fact that the budget was announced last week, today he comes out and says, 'Okay, yes, we will fund the upgrade of the Bruce Highway—the 20 per cent south of Caloundra.' Nowhere is that stated in the budget papers. They have just plucked this money out of nowhere. They have made an announcement now only because of the good works of the member for Fairfax, the member for Wide Bay and myself. We have shamed the Labor government into finally providing the upgrades south of Caloundra.

Honourable members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members, robust debate is always welcome in the chamber, but I need to be able to follow it as well.

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this place today to ask the member for Forde a really simple question: is this motion a joke? Surely he has got to be kidding. He is a member of the Turnbull government, a government that has not delivered one cent north of Brisbane in the budget. Does the member for Forde not realise that the state of Queensland expands beyond the south-east golden triangle of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast? The Labor state government does. Does the member for Forde realise that the federal government has done nothing for North Queensland?

He is a member of the Turnbull government, the government that announced the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility more than two years ago and still has not delivered one single project. In fact, at this point of time, in the northern part of the country, we have renamed it the 'no actual infrastructure fund'. The member for Forde is a member of the government that announced the CRC in Townsville more than a year ago. According to the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, the CRC was due to be up and running in mid-2016. Well, it is mid-2017 and there is still nothing.

The member for Forde is a member of such an out-of-touch Turnbull government that he would rather give a $65 billion tax cut to big businesses and make someone earning $55,000 pay an extra $275 in tax. The member for Forde is a member of such a disgraceful government that he supports $22 billion cuts in education and $2.2 billion cuts in health. This is the government that the member for Forde belongs to, and this is the unfair lack of attention to the North Queensland budget that the member for Forde has supported—an out-of-touch, disgraceful Turnbull government budget.

And then there are the massive cuts to infrastructure. In the current financial year alone, the member for Forde and his government have cut infrastructure funding by $1.6 billion, and then funding continues to drop off a cliff over the next four years. By 2021, the infrastructure spend will have dropped by $3.4 billion. And guess which state bears the brunt of most of the Turnbull government cuts? No other than the member for Forde's own state, Queensland. Almost a quarter, 21 per cent, of infrastructure fund cuts in 2016-17 are in Queensland. Of the $1.6 billion cuts to the national infrastructure, more than $345 million of those cuts go to Queensland. At budget time last year, Queensland was promised $2.2 billion in infrastructure funding. However, we will only receive $1.8 billion.

This government has not been up-front with Queenslanders. It has cut funding for fixing dangerous blackspots on local roads—$17.3 million. It has cut funding for major road upgrades—$276.5 million. It has cut funding for upgrading the roads that the cattle industry relies on by $20.2 million. It has cut funding for upgrading roads that connect communities and regional towns across Northern Queensland by $50.7 million. And, for the poor old Bruce Highway, the Turnbull government has not invested one extra dollar. In fact, the government will spend $6.1 million less on the Bruce Highway next year than this year.

If the member for Forde wants to talk about jobs for Queensland, you do not create jobs by slashing over $345 million from infrastructure. The absolute nerve of the member for Forde! For him to stand here in this place and talk about jobs in Queensland is an absolute joke. For the electorate of Herbert, it is like rubbing salt into open wounds, because, under the member for Forde's government, the Abbott-Turnbull government, unemployment in Townsville has almost doubled. And this government has handed down a budget that does not even mention Herbert or North Queensland.

Let us compare and contrast. The Queensland Labor budget delivered $623 million for Herbert alone; the Turnbull government, $345 million in cuts. The Queensland Labor budget has $935.9 million for the Townsville Health and Hospital Service; the LNP government has $2.2 billion in cuts to health and hospitals nationally. The Queensland Labor government has $225 billion for water security infrastructure; the Turnbull government has delivered nothing to address water issues in the north. The Queensland Labor government has $100 million for hydropower on the Burdekin Falls Dam; the Turnbull government has nothing to address our energy issues.

So it is very clear who is backing North Queensland. It is clear who is actually delivering funds for North Queensland. And it is very clear that only one party ever has delivered and ever will deliver for jobs in the north, and that is the Labor Party. The member for Forde's motion just speaks to his jealousy that he was not able to deliver a budget for Queensland and Labor was.

If you want to know what the people on the ground think in Queensland, you only need to compare and contrast the front pages of the Townsville Bulletin. The front page after the Turnbull budget depicted Senator 'gold card' Ian Macdonald, 'not sure' what the people wanted in the budget, whereas after the Queensland Labor budget we saw a Premier with a money hose. Labor will deliver for the north, and Labor will deliver for Queensland.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the five minutes that I listened to the member for Herbert speak, she only gave less than 30 seconds to talk about the topic—which is, of course, the Queensland Labor government. There is one thing worse than being spoken of in politics when you are leading—that is, in fact, when no-one says anything about you at all. If you have members of the Labor Party in such denial that they do not even want to speak about their government other than having some fake rubbery numbers of comparison, it says it all. The member for Herbert tried to base her entire argument on this myth that the Turnbull federal government has not funded anything north of Brisbane. 'Nothing north of Brisbane' is her claim, and yet we heard just previously from the member for Fisher that $1.6 billion is being spent on the Bruce Highway alone. We have $929 million, the sod turned and already under construction, on the section between the Caloundra Road turn-off and the Sunshine Motorway. We have $187 million around the Maroochydore interchange—80 per cent funded by the federal coalition government—and a $181 million concessional loan to the Sunshine Coast Airport. These are big licks of money for major infrastructure, despite what the member for Herbert suggested—yes, north of Brisbane and, yes, by the coalition.

The member for Oxley, of course, after his very longwinded whine about all things wrong, to his credit, conceded that unemployment is too high in Queensland. But his only answer was more jobs for public servants—15,000 jobs created already over two years, and big-government Labor's only solution to unemployment in Queensland is—guess what?—more public servants. Where are these public servants going? You bet, right into metropolitan capital city Brisbane. It is typical of the Labor Party because they have to look after their union mates where some of their people are under threat of losing their seats. They are coming under attack from the Greens. That is why you see in this last budget nothing to do with regional and rural Queensland and creating jobs, but looking after two jobs—that is, of the Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, and of Grace Grace. All of this is a robust budget for the jobs of those in the Labor Party.

Queensland ought to be the powerhouse of job creation. We should be, but if you look at the latest data, only South Australia had a higher unemployment rate, of 7.1 per cent to Queensland's 6.3 per cent. A decade ago that would have been absolutely unthinkable—impossible—but today that is the case. Last month, even Tasmania, at 5.9 per cent, was performing better than Queensland and we were considerably worse than the national average of 5.7 per cent. The stats show that in May 2016 unemployment was 6.4 per cent. Go back another year, May 2015, unemployment was 6.4 per cent. Today, we have 6.3 per cent—in other words, nothing has happened under the Labor government. The state has lost over 38,000 jobs in the year to February alone, more than any other state, and yet the Labor Party suggests that this Queensland Labor government is about jobs. It is one of the oldest tricks in the book. They announce a budget and they call it a 'jobs' budget, because 'if we package it up and give it a title of jobs, people might actually believe that we are helping to create jobs.' Well, they are not.'

If we look to where the future is going, the Palaszczuk government is approaching $80 billion in debt. They might claim to be paying some of that off but all they are doing is shuffling it around. They are throwing it into state owned enterprises, especially in the power sector. Who loses as a result of this? The huge dividends they are ripping out of that sector are resulting in higher electricity prices for everyday Queenslanders, the very Queenslanders who, due to this Labor state government, do not have jobs. So they do not give them jobs, do not give them investment and do not give them infrastructure but rip out the dividends that increase electricity prices. That is the Queensland state Labor government.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to say that this is a motion which is so stupid that it is only rivalled for stupidity by the motion moved by the member for Fairfax earlier today about energy prices. How silly would you have to be as a Liberal or National member of this place to move a motion attacking the Queensland Labor government over energy prices, when the annual bill increase in Queensland has been 1.9 per cent for a typical household, whereas under the Liberal-National government in the last term of parliament in Queensland there was a 43 per cent increase in power prices for a typical household over that period? Talk about leading with your chin. I don't know whether this is a strategy or just complete foolishness on the part of the Liberal-National party, but I suspect it is the latter, because if it is a strategy it is a very, very subtle and obscure one.

Here we have a motion from the member for Forde, seeking to attack the Palaszczuk Labor government in relation to jobs. Let us have a talk about the state LNP's track record on jobs in Queensland. When they came to office in March 2012, trend unemployment in Queensland was 5½ per cent. When they left office it was 6.6 per cent. In fact, while they were in for that one, sole, lonely term of government in Queensland from 2012 to 2015, with Tim Nicholls as Treasurer, the jobless rate hit a high of 7.1 per cent. That is what Tim Nicholls did to unemployment in Queensland when he was the state's Treasurer for the LNP government. The LNP managed to get unemployment to 7.1 per cent. And they want to come into the federal parliament and move a motion about jobs in Queensland under the Palaszczuk Labor government? It is utterly ridiculous and another example of leading with your chin.

Let me remind the House what the Newman government—the Campbell Newman-Tim Nicholls government—did to jobs in Queensland. They sacked tens of thousands of public servants. We have just heard the member for Fairfax bashing public servants, pooh-poohing the idea that you might want to hire public servants, as though he does not have public servants living in his own electorate, who would be very disappointed to hear the way he has disrespected and dismissed them, and as though he does not understand that amongst those public servants that are being hired by the Queensland government are teachers, nurses and police officers.

Very interestingly, the Queensland Labor government has just announced that teacher aides will go into prep classes to support teachers, to help improve education. Thank God someone is doing that. Thank God someone in Queensland is investing in education, because the Turnbull Liberal government is not investing in education. We are seeing a $22 billion cut to schools funding across this country by the Turnbull Liberal-National government. That is what we are seeing. The LNP opposition in Queensland will do nothing if they are elected at the election in Queensland but be a complete lap dog for Malcolm Turnbull and for the Turnbull Liberal-National government here in Canberra. That is what they will do. They will not be standing up against the Liberals and Nationals in Canberra, saying, 'No, we want our fair share for the state.' They will not be standing up for their fair share for education. They certainly will not be investing in education, like the Palaszczuk government is doing in Queensland at this very time, and not just the teacher aide funds: there is $500 million for two new high schools, including one in my electorate, which is sorely needed.

That is what Labor will do in Queensland, but what will the Liberals and Nationals do? We just heard the member for Fairfax belling the cat. They will go back to their old plans of slashing the public service and privatising everything. You talk about a six-pillar strategy. Their six pillars are sell it off, sell it off, sell it off, sell it off, sell it off, sell it off. But Labor does not stand for that.

Under the LNP in Queensland, in their last term of government, we saw a fall of 12,900 people in full-time employment—380 jobs a month. During the LNP government's term in Queensland, 30,000 more Queenslanders were thrown onto the unemployment queue. The LNP had no plan then for dealing with unemployment, just a plan for selling off assets—and nothing has changed. They abolished Skilling Queenslanders for Work. What is the contrast with the Labor government in Queensland? We have backed in Back to Work in the regions, a $150 million regional Queensland program aimed at getting Queenslanders back into work, and a new program in the south-east with $27½ million for the same purpose. We are the only party who will stand up for jobs in Queensland. The LNP will not stand up for jobs in Queensland.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.