Premier Under Attack For Inflating Promised Infrastructure Job Numbers
Mr Brumby told Parliament last Wednesday the Victorian State Budget “will generate 35,000 direct new jobs through $7 billion worth of infrastructure spending in our schools, in our hospitals, in transport and, of course, across community facilities.
Today, the Premier was forced to admit this number was wrong, and actually included all existing jobs from infrastructure projects currently underway.
Treasurer John Lenders, commenting through a spokesman to The Sunday Age, said the government “was unable to provide a breakdown of how many of the 35,000 jobs were existing or new.
A Treasury paper obtained by The Sunday Age shows about 10,000 roles are supply chain jobs.
Opposition leader Ted Baillieu told the paper: “The Premier will have misled the Parliament and all ictorians if he cannot show that the 35,000 new jobs he claimed would be created from the budget is in fact true.”
Although Mr Brumby and several other ministers claimed the jobs were new last Wednesday, all meetings outside of Parliament said the government was “securing”, “supporting” or “stimulating” jobs.
