THE Palaszczuk Government’s rhetoric on innovation has been dealt an embarrassing blow after it was revealed its signature policy had cost $60 million in its first year and created only 121 jobs.
Shadow Innovation Minister Tarnya Smith said Annastacia Palaszczuk’s much-hyped Advance Queensland initiative was another in a growing list of failures.
“I was shocked to learn in Estimates this thought bubble had only created 121 jobs at a cost of more than $60 million to taxpayers,” Ms Smith said.
“That equates to a staggering $502,785.12 per individual job.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk has overseen this thought bubble and spruiked it to anyone who’ll listen at every opportunity.
“It was only this week she slung $1 million to a multi-national company Boeing to get a few seconds of vision on the nightly news.”
Ms Smith said Advance Queensland was initially allocated $180 million in last year’s budget but had an extra $405 million pumped into its kitty in this year’s budget.
“With unemployment on the rise, corporate welfare handouts to multinational companies don’t create jobs for Queenslanders now, especially when home-grown Queensland businesses miss out,” Ms Smith said.
“On top of last week’s revelations that the Palaszczuk Government has created another 8,000 public service jobs in the past year, Queenslanders must be thinking this Labor government knows how to spend money but doesn’t have a clue how to create real jobs.”
