Queensland's Liberal National Party's "unrealistic" election promises can only be achieved by slashing the public service, a leading economist has warned.
University of Queensland economist John Quiggin says it's impossible for the party to create 500,000 jobs through a fiscal policy that involves cutting taxes, increasing expenditure and improving the budget balance.
"These are all desirable objectives, but it's a matter of simple arithmetic that all three can't be achieved at once," Professor Quiggin wrote on his blog posted this week.
"The promises made by the LNP can be delivered only through large, unannounced cuts in general government expenditure.
"This is consistent with the strategy adopted by the Newman government in 2012, and by the Abbott government in 2013. "
Labor has jumped on Prof Quiggin's comments, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk positioning herself as the rational alternative to Mr Nicholls' big spending campaign.
"I am not going to promise the world. My commitments to the people of this state are going to be measured and responsible," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Wednesday.
"They will be fully costed, and they will be displayed in a way that anyone walking into that polling booth will know exactly where the money is coming from."
The Newman government was ousted by Labor in 2015 after a spectacular fall from grace following the sacking of at least 14,000 public servants, despite having promised the public service it had nothing to fear.
As treasurer, current LNP leader Tim Nicholls was the architect of the party's asset sales pitch and cuts to the private sector.
During this campaign he has insisted there would be no new taxes, asset sales or forced redundancies in the public sector, and says the LNP would find savings by not renewing unspecified programs, and cutting government advertising.
On Tuesday Mr Nicholls dodged questions about how he would pay for more than $2 billion in campaign promises and called on Queenslanders to simply trust him with the state's finances, saying costings would be release two days before polling day on November 25.
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