Queensland election 2017: Rolling coverage of day 19 of the campaign
SCHOOL teachers will be put through their paces like never before under a new policy released by the LNP that would also deliver 250 “teacher mentors” throughout the state to “empower schools.”
QLD Election
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Election. Followed categories will be added to My News.
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NEW school teachers will be put through their paces via an online test before they gain accreditation under an LNP Government.
Leader Tim Nicholls unveiled the policy this morning saying new teachers would be made to sit the test until they pass it.
They would be given incorrect children’s answers and be made to explain how they would advise the student to correctly get the answer in future.
Senior teaching mentors would also be employed to train young teachers and prep students will be given free hearing tests should the LNP win.
Mr Nicholls said he would deliver 250 “teacher mentors” over four years throughout the state to “empower schools.”
“An LNP Government is focused on ensuring all children receive the best start to education regardless of their background or where they live in Queensland,” he said.
“Investing in education is an investment in the future of our children and grandchildren.”
The LNP’s ‘School Planning Commission’ would also be returned to be identify where new schools should be built with a focus on long-term planning.
“The LNP believes future schools should be built according to need, not for political gain like we have seen under Annastacia Palaszczuk with her decision to pork-barrel Jackie Trad and Grace Grace’s electorates,” Mr Nicholls said.
The test the LNP plans to introduce is different to one that was generated by Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham in 2013.
Premier to make Cabinet ‘decisions’
LABOR will spend more than $90 million to revitalise TAFE campuses across the state if re-elected.
Visiting a TAFE in Acacia Ridge today, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk committed the bulk of new money – $85 million over three years – to redevelop and refurbish Pimlico at Townsville, Cairns, Mount Gravatt, Toowoomba, Redland and Gold Coast TAFE campuses.
She’ll also provide $4 million for a new plumbing and fire safety training facility at Beenleigh with capacity for 700 trainees and apprentices each year.
Ms Palaszczuk said LNP Leader Tim Nicholls “gutted TAFE” when he was treasurer in the Newman Government.
“My Government made a promise to save TAFE and that is what we are doing,” she said.
“And a re-elected Palaszczuk Government will continue to reinvest in TAFE assets because we believe that investing in TAFE assets, bringing them up to modern standards, making sure that they cope with the growing skills that are needed, the jobs that are needed across our state, that we will invest in future jobs.”
Jobs hit for Labor
QUEENSLAND’S unemployment has bounced back to six per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis providing another headache for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
The rise was just .1 per cent on last month but the increase is likely to provide the LNP with ammunition to attack the Government’s big focus on jobs.
On the less volatile trend measure, the unemployment rate was steady at 5.9 per cent.
Nationally the rate remained the same at 5.5 per cent.
Australia created 20,000 jobs during the month and unemployment fell by 3000.
The number of hours worked in all jobs increased slightly.
Speaking ahead of the release of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics jobs figures, Ms Palaszczuk said she was committed to presiding over a government with an unemployment rate of less than six per cent.
“I am absolutely determined to bring down unemployment in Queensland and get people into work,” she said.
But she would not commit to a jobs target of creating a specific number of jobs in the next term of government, if elected.
The Premier said 122,500 jobs had been created since her election in 2015 and the unemployment rate was the lowest it had been in four years.
The LNP had said it will create 500,000 new jobs over the next decade through payroll tax reforms, which Labor has criticised for its long-term outlook.
Meanwhile LNP leader Tim Nicholls says the unemployment rate gap is widening between the rest of Australia and Queensland following the release of jobs figures this morning.
Mr Nicholls conceded the rate had dropped since the LNP left Government in 2015, Queensland has the second worst rate in Australia, only behind Tasmania.
“It is the price Queenslanders are paying for a do nothing Labor Government that doesn’t have plans, doesn’t have a target, it doesn’t have plans to build Infrastructure, to invest in water resources - it’s a Government that is out of ideas and has spent the last two and a half years avoiding making decisions and the real impact for Queenslanders is jobs and job security,” he said.
“What we’ve seen actually is a widening of the gap so while the national unemployment rate is down to 5.4 per cent Queensland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has gone up to six per cent.
“That is a telling indictment on the do nothing Labor Government.”
- John McCarthy, Jessica Marszalek
People’s Forum tonight
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk says she’s looking forward to tonight’s Sky News/ The Courier-Mail People’s Forum debate with her LNP and One Nation rivals.
Ms Palaszczuk will be up against LNP Leader Tim Nicholls and One Nation Leader Steve Dickson as 100 undecided voters are given the chance to ask the trio their own questions.
“I always love a debate,” she said.
“I’ve been doing town hall meetings right across the state.
“I love talking to people, I love hearing their concerns.
“That is what I’ve been doing since I was opposition leader and as Premier as it’s responding to people’s issues and concerns. That is a priority of mine.”
She said her strategy tonight would be to be herself.
“What you see is what you get,” she said.
– Jessica Marszalek
Labor Cabinet reshuffle?
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk could shake up her Cabinet if re-elected, twice refusing today to guarantee she’d maintain her team.
Ms Palaszczuk said she was very proud of her Cabinet team “and I back them 100 per cent”.
She said they had been delivering for the state.
But asked whether she would rule out any changes, she did not.
“I’ll make those decisions,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said unions would “absolutely not” have a say in her new team if re-elected.
“I’m the one who decides,” she said.
– Jessica Marszalek
Originally published as Queensland election 2017: Rolling coverage of day 19 of the campaign
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