Media release
The federal leader of the Palmer United Party and Member for Fairfax, Clive Palmer, has renewed his calls for a National Economic Summit, fearing Tony Abbott is following the Newman Government’s failed model that led to chronic unemployment in Queensland.
Mr Palmer said Queensland had the dubious honour of having one of the nation’s worst unemployment rates at around 6.6%, due to Campbell Newman’s terrible economic legacy.
“This is not a template for the Abbott Government to follow,’’ Mr Palmer said.
“We need to stimulate the economy to get Australia moving again and the first step should be to have a National Economic Summit. I have called for this previously and I note that even Rupert Murdoch has echoed my thoughts,’’ Mr Palmer said.
“Politics must be put to one side and we should come together as a nation to find the best ways to restore business confidence in Australia.
“We need Australia’s top business minds, politicians and academics to come together and outline a plan to return to the standards of living Australians deserve,’’ Mr Palmer said.
Mr Palmer said the Abbott Government needed to listen to a wide range of views from business and other community leaders to help drive the national economy forward.
“The Prime Minister and the Cabinet spend too much time getting advice from Treasury officials on economic matters,” he said.
“These people all look the same, talk the same and read from the same book and they are just trying to protect their own jobs. They have no experience in the wider world of business.
“Yet these people are the drivers of our economic prosperity. This needs to change.”
Mr Palmer said an economic summit would generate ideas to get the country moving again.
“All we hear from the Government at the moment is plans for new taxes or spending cuts, we need to stimulate the economy like they have done in the US and create jobs,” he said.
ENDS