Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls has attempted to explain away the latest unemployment figures, which show Queensland pulling up the rate for the country as a whole, as a case of "a weaker global outlook, including uncertainty about the US 'fiscal cliff' and a decline in commodity prices" -- not the result of state job cuts.

The question that springs immediately to mind is: Why bother? Wouldn't he be better off with some Thatcherite "no pain, no gain" rhetoric, promising that the cuts his government has implemented will yield pay-offs for all Queenslanders in the long run?