Queensland Government package to counter unemployment and One Nation

WITH One Nation on the rise at the expense of the major parties, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is about to roll out the heavy artillery.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gautam Adani at the Port of Townsville last week. Pic: Tara Croser

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A NEW multimillion-dollar stimulus package to create jobs and lure business to regional Queensland will be unveiled tomorrow.

Amid stubborn unemployment and surging support for One Nation, The Courier-Mail can reveal the Government will plunge additional coal royalties cash flooding into its coffers towards the scheme.

The regional jobs and business attraction package will be unveiled in Treasurer Curtis Pitt’s Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Review.

It follows the $100 million Back to Work program that was announced in the 2016-17 Budget that pays regional employers between $10,000 and $20,000 to take on extra employees. Almost 1000 jobs have been awarded the funding.

“We need to ensure our regions are strong, that there’s opportunities to work and for families,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

“They need the full range of services.

“While the Queensland unemployment rate is down, it is stubbornly high in a number of regions with the prolonged drought and mining downturn.

“Tourism is going strong and there’s optimism in agriculture and mining. We are determined to turn that renewed confidence into jobs.”

Jobless data and the rise of One Nation have compounded Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s woes.

The decision to pump extra cash into stimulating the lacklustre regional jobs market comes after a special meeting of Cabinet last month which coincided with the latest jobless data.

While Queensland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 6.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent, its lowest in three years, a sharp drop in the participation rate sparked concern.

Five of the 10 worst unemployment areas in the nation are now in Queensland - the Outback, Townsville, Wide Bay, Ipswich and Cairns.

Townsville’s unemployment rate is about 12 per cent with almost one in four youths out of work.

There are growing fears in the Labor Government that the toxic mix of unemployment and Pauline Hanson’s renaissance as a Queensland senator is driving regional voters toward One Nation.

The latest Galaxy Poll found One Nation’s support was locked at 16 per cent statewide.

But the vote is believed to be concentrated around regional cities and towns, areas that delivered power to Labor at the 2015 state election.

Economists have predicted surging coal prices and increased demand will deliver an additional $1 billion to the Budget bottom line.