Former treasurer Tim Nicholls and former premier Campbell Newman. Friends again? Credit:Renee Melides "The first was the December quarter 1990 and March quarter 1991 - a result of the late 80s stock market crash. "The second was the September and December quarters 2009 - in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis. "...The difference between contractions in growth of the early 90s and the Global Financial Crisis, is this is the slowdown that Queensland didn't have to have. "In 2011-12, the economy was growing at 4.7 per cent under Labor and in 2013-14 growth had halved under the LNP to 2.3 per cent. To put this into context, the 0.6 per cent contraction in the December quarter, the dying days of the Nicholls-Newman Government, was the single worst quarterly contraction in 30 years."

Treasurer Curtis Pitt said comments about Queensland being on a 'power dive into the abyss' were not helpful to the state's economy. Credit:Chris Hyde Mr Pitt said over the same time, the national economy's GDP grew by 0.9 per cent. He blamed the former government for "talking down the economy". Shadow Treasurer John-Paul Langbroek refuted Mr Pitt's claims, calling the data they were based on "clever, concocted figures". Credit:Glenn Hunt "Comments about Queensland being on a 'power dive into the abyss' were not helpful," he said.

"Sadly for Queenslanders and for the former Premier it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. "It was all pain and no gain." Mr Pitt said over the last Labor government Gross State Product averaged at 1.1 per cent growth per quarter. The figures for the March quarter are not yet available. Shadow Treasurer John-Paul Langbroek rejected Mr Pitt's claims. "On Tuesday he was out here with rubbery coins, today he is out here with rubbery figures," he said.

"When we look at the economic growth figures, for one thing, the Australian Bureau of Statistics doesn't even report quarterly, so what he has obviously done is he has taken the gross state product and he has taken away net exports to come up with some clever concocted figures. "Because let's take a look at the economic figures over the last six years, June 2009, this is reported annually, under the Labor Government, economic growth was 1 per cent. June 2010, 1.4 per cent. June 2011, still the Bligh Government, I know it is a bad memory for many of us, it was 1.1 per cent. June 2012 - 4.7 per cent, that was when the LNP had been in for three months." Mr Pitt returned that the figures came from the independent Treasury. Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland Director of Advocacy Nick Behrens also disagreed with Mr Pitt's assessment. "The chamber's view is that the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the official umpire on whether or not the Queensland economy is in recession," he said.

"Our view is that Queensland treasury numbers typically are used for political purposes rather than an accurate data set on the performance of the economy. "There's no question that Queensland's economy is not performing as it ought to however whether we are in recession remains to be seen. "The danger of talking down the economy is that it undermines investment." He said the official ABS figures were due next month. "We are somewhat surprised that the Treasurer has used these numbers in parliament this morning," he said.

"The treasurer has emphasised that he wishes to be positive in relation to the Queensland economy yet in our view he is talking the economy down through saying that we are in recession when it remains to be seen whether or not that is the case." Don't miss important news stories. Like us on Facebook.