Qld Treasurer in charge of job creation

(AAP) - Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser will take added responsibility for keeping the state afloat in the global financial crisis, accepting a new portfolio in the re-elected Bligh government.

Mr Fraser, who last year became the state's second youngest ever treasurer at 30,
will also be the minister for employment and economic development.
Qld Premier Anna Bligh has pledged to overhaul her unpopular cabinet after Labor won
a fifth consecutive term in office at Saturday's election.
She is hand-picking an entirely new team without consulting caucus and has already
divested Stephen Robertson of the health portfolio, handing it to Deputy Premier
Paul Lucas.
Ms Bligh said Labor's central campaign promise had been to create 100,000 new jobs,
so she created a new portfolio and handed it to a senior minister to reflect its
importance.
Mr Fraser's new department would take in sections of the current employment and
tourism departments.
"He's someone that I know loves a challenge and I know he will rise to this one," Ms
Bligh told reporters.
Mr Fraser said Queenslanders would be able to judge his performance for themselves,
as jobless data was released monthly.
"The yardstick by which we will be measured is the creation of 100,000 extra jobs
and you will be able to do that ... on the second Thursday of every month," he said.
"Frankly, I think it will be tough to meet.
"If you look at what's occurred over the last three months, job creation in total is
about 4,300 - that doesn't put us on a trajectory where this is going to be an easy
target."
The previous Beattie government set a target based on the unemployment percentage,
but Mr Fraser would say only that the Bligh government's jobs target would have a
"downward effect" on the jobless rate.
Meanwhile, Mr Lucas spent the first day in his new role meeting clinicians about a
contentious new children's hospital.
Labor lost the seat of Aspley, in Brisbane's north, at the election, which was put
down to its plan to merge the area's children's hospital with another hospital in
the city's south.
Ms Bligh said the government now had a mandate to deliver the promised world-class
facility and wanted clinicians' help.
She admitted the government, with Mr Robertson as minister, could have negotiated
the plan better in the past.
"Paul brings to the task of healing the rift around the Queensland Children's
Hospital a great deal of good will, a fresh set of eyes and determination to find
the things that bring people together, not exploit the differences," she said.
Mr Lucas said he would visit both hospital sites next week to learn more about the
issues.
The new cabinet will be announced before Thursday's swearing in and will meet for
the first time next Monday.