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July 11th, 2013 
QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman’s 4.0 per cent unemployment target has slipped further away with the state recording its highest jobless rate in almost a decade.
It has risen by half a percentage point in June to 6.4 per cent, well above the national average of 5.7 per cent and the state’s highest rate since October 2003.
Queensland now has the second highest unemployment rate after Tasmania.
The dismal figures are a far cry from Mr Newman’s election promise to drive down unemployment to 4.0 per cent over six years.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mulherin says Queensland is going backwards.
“These are shocking figures that are an indictment on the Newman government’s economic management,” he said.
He blamed the jobless rate on the Newman government’s massive public service jobs and budget cuts.
Queensland had 13,700 fewer full-time jobs since Campbell Newman came to power, he said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday used Queensland as an example of what could happen to the country under Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s “slash and burn” austerity plan for the nation.
“We have seen how that works in Queensland under Campbell Newman where business and consumer confidence has been shaken by the sacking of thousands of people, and the shrinking of critical government services,” he said.
Premier Campbell Newman instead blamed the federal government for impeding job growth by holding up mining projects.
“He (Mr Rudd) acknowledges this – that downturn in the mining industry is a key reason for the figures being what they are,” he told reporters.
“He must take responsibility for that.
“The uncertainty he delivered back three years ago with the mining tax and then Julia Gillard with the carbon tax that wasn’t going to happen, have really hurt the mining industry.”
Mr Newman said one way to boost jobs was for new federal Environment Minister Mark Butler to “get out of the way” and approve the necessary projects in southern Queensland’s Galilee coal basin.
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