Bligh pledges commitment as state readies for election date

ANNA Bligh has promised to serve out the full term of the next parliament even if her government loses at the looming election.

ANNA Bligh has promised to serve out the full term of the next parliament even if her government is defeated at the looming election that could be called as early as Tuesday.

Ms Bligh will hold a special cabinet meeting on Monday to finalise plans for the restructure of the beleaguered Queensland Health department in the wake of the latest scandal, last year's arrest of one of its finance bureaucrats for allegedly stealing $16.6 million in taxpayer funds.

The Labor Premier, who successive polls indicate is facing a landslide defeat to the Campbell Newman-led Liberal National Party, has insisted that she would not call the election until after the Monday meeting to discuss a commissioned report on splitting the health department into two arms.

A likely election date, if Ms Bligh was to call the poll on Tuesday, would be February 18 following the required minimum 26-day campaign.

However, this week it was revealed that Labor has yet to select candidates in at least 10 seats, which could delay the election.

Successive polls have shown that Labor, seeking its sixth consecutive election win, is facing a defeat, reducing it to as few as 10 seats in the 89-seat parliament.

Ms Bligh, whose South Brisbane seat is one of Labor's safest -- with a margin of 15 per cent -- issued a statement yesterday saying she would not resign in the next parliament if her government lost the election.

"I will serve out the full term as the member for South Brisbane regardless of the outcome of the election," she said.

Labor insiders yesterday speculated that Ms Bligh would call the election next Tuesday to seize on Mr Newman's comments on Thursday in which he moved to back away from a promise to cut the unemployment rate to 4 per cent by creating 420,000 new jobs over the two terms of government.

But Mr Newman yesterday insisted the 4 per cent target remained.

"During the speech, I indicated we felt, on the basis of some of the modelling and projections we'd done, that would require around 420,000 jobs to be created. But the target is 4 per cent," he told Sky News.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser said Mr Newman's 420,00 jobs target was all stunts and slogans, but no substance.

"He was out there talking the big game earlier in the week on setting a jobs target and two days later he had to back away from that," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"Even now he has admitted that he can't explain his own jobs target. These are reckless promises, they are ones made up on the go."