Beautiful one day, in recession the next
Queensland slipped into recession for just the third time since records began in the final two quarters of last year.
Treasurer Curtis Pitt says the state’s gross state product fell by 0.2 per cent in the July-September quarter, followed by another fall of 0.6 per cent in the December quarter.
The treasurer says Queensland has only been through two other recessions, in 1991 and 2009, since state accounts were first recorded.
“It troubles me to advise the House today we add a third occasion in Queensland,” Pitt said.
He said the recession was triggered by the policies of the previous Liberal National Party government.
Pitt blamed bad decisions, waste and mass sackings.
“Their legacy is three years of economic mismanagement underscored by mass sackings, rising unemployment, bumbling policies and subdued business conditions,” he said.
“The difference between the contractions in growth of the early `90s and the global financial crisis, Mr Speaker, is this is the slowdown that Queensland didn’t have to have.”
Former treasurer Tim Nicholls shouted “You’re making it up” across the chamber before being silenced by Speaker Peter Wellington.
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Shadow treasurer John-Paul Langbroek accused Pitt of using “rubbery figures” because he was not relying on the Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
“What he’s obviously done is he’s taken the gross state product and he’s taken away net exports from it to come up with some clever concocted figures,” Langbroek said.
Langbroek said the former LNP government had “left Queensland on a strong trajectory of growth”.
Pitt later hit back at Langbroek, saying he was relying on Queensland state accounts figures, which the opposition also uses.
