Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

What increases the cost-of-living pressures for Australians is losing their job. In Victoria 12,000 construction jobs are gone—twice the national average. In Queensland, since Mr Campbell Newman was elected in March 2012, Queensland has lost 17,000 jobs. So 29,000 Australian families have a much, much tougher living because of the state Liberal governments in Queensland and Victoria.

The unemployment rate in this country would have come down but for the Queensland state Liberal-National government. If the Newman government's employment performance was taken out of the national figures, the national unemployment rate would be 5.2 per cent. But it gets worse. (Time expired)