Reference :- Former Liberal Party Minister , Ian Macfarlane claimed that there are 372,000 jobs in the mining and gas sector in Queensland .

 Reference :-    That sure is a lot of jobs , but where does the figure come from ? 

 Sky Reply numbers man , Monte , decided to check the employment figures for the state .  The first source he consulted was the Queensland Resources Council , which sounds like a boring government department run by vapid public servants .     And indeed , the QRC site confirmed the extraordinary figure of 372,000 jobs in the mining and gas sector . 

But then , upon further exploration , Monte discovered  that the Queensland Resources Council is merely a private organisation representing mining interests . The CEO of this organisation is none other than the Honorable  Mr Ian Macfarlane himself .   Furthermore the members of the QRC  are not at all vapid . They fairly bristle with entrepreneurial ardour .  This raised the possibility that the estimate of 372,000 jobs could be a tad optimistic .   

Monte then consulted actual government sources , and found that a figure of 65,000 is more realistic .  

That looks like an overestimation of about 300,000 .   Monte was quick to point out that Energy Minister , Angus Taylor , would call that a simple rounding error , but nonetheless one could easily mistake such an error for self serving propaganda . 

Of course , Mr Macfarlane may be including all the spin off jobs that are indirectly related to the mining and gas sector .  Perhaps that could account for the missing 300,000 ?   Obviously somebody has to clip the miner's hair and sell them food and beer , maybe even cut their grass when they are away from home . 

Its all the big picture I guess .    I explained this spin off jobs thing to the lads at The Sky Reply , and they suddenly broke into laughter and song .    The strange song they sang  ended something like this , if I recall . 

         "  Now the fascinating witches who put the stitches in the britches of the boys who put the powder 

             on the noses of the faces of the ladies of the harem of the court of King Catactacus were just 

            passing by "     

   I looked confused .   Gabbo asked   " Do you get it ? "

                                    " Yeah , I think so. "     I replied . 

 Your comrade ,  Ken .