Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The people of Ipswich and Blair are already feeling the impact of Campbell Newman's slash and burn budget, with the unemployment rate in Ipswich going up from 4.7 per cent in July 2012 to six per cent in August 2012. At 5.1 per cent, Australia has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the industrial world. Since we have been in power, we have created 800,000 jobs. In the Ipswich area, tens of thousands of jobs have been created from BER projects, the Ipswich Motorway and nation-building projects, but what do those opposite do? There is not a word from any of the LNP members in Queensland about what Campbell Newman is doing across the state of Queensland.

In Ipswich and the West Moreton region community services and tenancy services have been slashed. We have also seen the Skilling Queenslanders for Work program slashed. In the Ipswich community we have lost $4.5 million from Skilling Queenslanders for Work job creation programs, from Ipswich City Council, from Boystown and from Riverview Neighbourhood House. We have seen Harvest Rain Theatre Company lose funding. These are the consequences of the LNP government in Queensland, the curtain raiser for the Leader of the Opposition. That is what we would see if those opposite got onto the Treasury benches—slash and burn. The Western Corridor and Ipswich are suffering once again from the tyranny of a coalition government.