Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Attorney-General, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:32): I did make some observations about Queensland politics on Sunday morning during the course of what I understood to be a private conversation. But, nevertheless, since you have referred to it, Senator Moore, one of the things I said during the course of making those observations was that the Queensland government is very, very mediocre. And so it is. This is the record of mediocrity of the Queensland government. Since the start of this year alone under the Palaszczuk Labor government 68,000 Queenslanders have lost their jobs and another 90,000 have given up looking for work. That is the record. The PRESIDENT: Senator Gallagher, a point of order? Senator Gallagher: I have a point of order on relevance. As interesting as the Leader of the Government in the Senate can be, the question was very specific around the Queensland Liberal National Party and the comments that the leader made saying that they were 'very, very mediocre'. It was not about the government of Queensland. The PRESIDENT: The Attorney-General is in response to the question, which did have the component, 'Does the Leader of the Government in the Senate stand by his statement?' The Attorney-General acknowledged the comments up-front in his answer. He did not detract those comments, so I will take it that he does stand by his comments and he is enhancing his answer, as all ministers are entitled to do. Senator BRANDIS: I think it is only honest for the full sentence to be quoted, Senator Moore, in relation to the great mediocrity of the Palaszczuk Labor government. Do you know, Senator Moore—and you should—that Queensland is now Australia's most greatly indebted state? This is for a population, by the way, of some 4.9 million people. State debt is now almost $80 billion—more than $15,000 of state debt for every man, woman and child in Queensland. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Queensland, at six per cent, is 0.4 per cent above the national average and has been so consistently. Senator Moore, you and I both have the good fortune to come from Queensland. We are used to Queensland being a powerhouse economy. We are used to Queensland riding the mining boom—riding the economic wave. But, under the Palaszczuk Labor government, Queensland has stopped dead in its tracks. The PRESIDENT: Senator Moore, a supplementary question.