The unemployment rate in Queensland has risen from 5.5 per cent to 5.8 per cent under the Newman LNP Government.
IN the lead up to the State election held one year ago yesterday, the LNP had a mantra of "getting Queensland back on track".
If we stick a thermometer in the state's economy and read the vital signs the data is clear. The diagnosis is not good. The tough medicine prescribed is weakening not strengthening the patient. The LNP's surgery on the budget is hurting our economy, not helping it recover.
But before going any further I want to be crystal clear: this is not a "we was robbed" lament. Far from it. Nor am I suggesting fiscal reform isn't necessary. I continue to reside firmly in the reformist column despite the consequences.
As such I do not believe the election result was unjust. However, many of the consequences have been.
The harsh reality is clear when we look at the singularly most important task of the economy, generating jobs.
There are now 8500 more Queenslanders who are unemployed than 12 months ago. The unemployment rate has risen from 5.5 per cent to 5.8 per cent. The Premier's pledge to get to 4 per cent unemployment has fallen off the radar.
In the State of Origin of jobs generation over the last year NSW stacked on ten new jobs for every one job created in Queensland. Victoria, diagnosed as in recession, created four times the number of jobs than our State.
But, worryingly, the rising rate of official unemployment is not the full story.
The rise in the unemployment rate is masked by the fact that Queensland has had the highest percentage increase in the number of people who have given up looking for work.
These people are now no longer counted as officially unemployed. They are, however, out of a job.
In the statistics, these people are counted in determining the "participation rate" and it has dropped by nearly a full percentage point. Add this on to the reported unemployment rate and you get a fuller picture of the scourge of job losses in this state, championed by the Government itself purging thousands of jobs despite its pledge that workers had no reason to fear the LNP.
Upon election the LNP promoted a sinister agenda of cutting jobs and tens of thousands of Queenslanders lost their hope of finding work.
Over the last 12 months no other state comes even close to the deterioration we have experienced in this key metric of economic wellbeing. We are a shameful first when it comes to the loss of hope.
The Government's austerity measures have cruelled confidence and smashed demand. The official data shows growth in State Final Demand running at more than 7 per cent in the last year of Labor.
In its first year in office the new government drove this key measure of activity into negative territory and has since failed to recover it our economy is officially flat-lining. The economy is now DOA under the care of Premier Campbell Newman.
None of this, by the way, is my data. It's all taken from the Queensland Treasury website.
Speaking of data taken from the website, a curious omission is evident.
It is widely appreciated among economists that SFD is not the full picture of an economy's health. But Queenslanders do not know what overall state economic growth is because one of the first things Tim Nicholls did as Treasurer was order a stop to publishing the quarterly State Accounts.
It turns out he commissioned not only an "audit" but also a suppression order while no-one was watching.
Other commentary has pointed out retail sales growth has slowed, commercial finance has gone backwards and first home buyers have retreated. Why? The election promise of prosperity was supplanted by unheralded austerity that broke the back of confidence.
The rhetoric around the Can Do election slogan described nothing more than a type of values-free managerialism.
In government the real agenda is much clearer. The few pages of the so-called Commission of Audit released this month read like a Tea Party pamphlet.
From dismantling the universality of public education to the proposed Americanisation of our healthcare system, the LNP are putting profit opportunity ahead of the enduring public interest. Coupled with swinging job cuts, this has seen Queenslanders take fright, shut their wallets and shelve plans.
The Queensland economy was recovering until Newman overshot the mark with reckless comparisons to Spain and a variety of tortured metaphors.
Regretfully, his denigration of Queensland's position became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The leadership of the Government seems to have learned this lesson and changed their rhetoric in recognition of the responsibility of government being very different to the cheap shots of opposition. They have begun to talk up Queensland, as they should.
The LNP election campaign was an impressive exercise in the dark art of politicking. The election result proved they can skilfully conceive and manage a winning campaign. However, once electioneering turned into governing the incontrovertible evidence sadly shows they aren't as nearly as good at managing the economy.
The least the Newman Government should now do is, in fact, get Queensland back on track the track of growth and jobs that Labor was delivering (but, it must be admitted, not clearly communicating) a year ago.
Regrets? Of course, like any human being, I have a few. But not nearly as many as thousands of Queenslanders who have found out the hard way that the LNP's policy prescription has hurt the state's economy and consigned them and their families to the unemployment scrap-heap.
Sadly, the signs aren't good that a return to full health is around the corner.
Andrew Fraser was Treasurer of Queensland from 2007-12.
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