Queensland Premier ‘not concerned’ after CFMEU pulls pin

As one of the nation’s most powerful unions announces it has slammed its massive financial war-chest shut to the Palaszczuk Government, the Premier says she’s got bigger things to worry about.

Annastacia Palaszczuk claims she’s not concerned she’s lost the support of one of Labor’s largest donors ahead of a knife-edge election.

The CFMEU slammed shut its massive financial war-chest to the Palaszczuk Government yesterday after announcing it was quitting the party’s dominant Left faction.

The powerful union also pulled its foot soldiers from campaigning on the ground for Labor.

“That’s a matter for them,” the Premier said today when asked how big of a loss it would be to the party’s campaign.

“I’m not concerned ... I’ve got other things to deal with frankly.”

Ms Palaszczuk also dismissed comments from CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar who yesterday criticised the Premier over her economic plan.

“At the end of the day, we’re not convinced about her plan, her vision and her leadership in regards for jobs, jobs security, stimulating the economy,” he said.

But the Premier said her Government had a clear economic plan.

“I’ve been speaking about that at length,” she said.

“As I said, you can’t have an economy unless you’ve got a strong health response.

“That’s why we are moving on the health response, we’ve got as you can see, our rapid response is in full gear.”

Ms Palaszczuk said job creation was central to everything her Government was working on.

“Don’t think for a moment that I don’t understand the dignity of work,” she said.

“I know that there are tough jobs out there that people will go to each and every day and they are absolutely vital, every single job is vital to our economy.”

The Premier did not know when in September the state’s highly-anticipated economic update would be, saying: “You’d have to ask the Treasurer, I’ll talk to him about it.”