Alex de Vos
An MP has been caught out promoting “factually wrong” unemployment rates, according to his opponent.
Liberal candidate Sarah Henderson accused federal Labor Member for Corangamite Darren Cheeseman of turning his back on jobless constituents.
Earlier this week Mr Cheeseman issued a media statement in which he “warmly welcomed” a dive in his seat’s unemployment from 1.3 per cent to 3.6 per cent.
“Almost 6000 local jobs had either been created or saved with good policy during the global recession,” Mr Cheeseman said in the statement.
“This is absolutely the best news we could have got, with strong employment figures providing some real stability for local families.”
However, Ms Henderson said Mr Cheeseman had fudged his figures.
He wrongly labelled December rates as “latest” figures when available January statistics showed rising unemployment, she said.
“If the current Member for Corangamite was doing his job properly he would have known that the latest figures…show an increase in unemployment to 4.7 per cent,” Ms Henderson said.
“This represents an increase of 1.1 per cent since December.”
Ms Henderson accused Mr Cheeseman of either “ignoring” constituents who lost their jobs in January or “attempting to brush over” the Rudd Government’s performance on employment.
“Again the current member has been caught out,” she said.
Mr Cheesmean’s spokesperson described the January’s increase as an example of how unemployment figures “bounce around from month to month”.