Australia PM Faces Elections In Home State

Queensland is Rudd`s home state and heavily reliant on the mining industry.

One of Australia's key mining states, Queensland, will go to the polls on March 21 in what could be a major test of how Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is seen to be handling the global financial crisis.

Queensland is Rudd's home state and heavily reliant on the mining industry, putting it on the front line of the crisis as export demand tumbles and unemployment climbs. An election was not due to be called there until September.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who belongs to Rudd's ruling Labor party, said in a video statement posted on her personal Web site that Queensland had been hit hard and fast by the crisis and voters should choose the government they wanted to deal with it.

"We are in unprecedented times," she said in the video, which was posted moments before she was due to seek a dissolution of the state's parliament by its governor.

"The global financial crisis has come to Queensland faster and with deeper consequences than anyone could have predicted. The sheer scale of the global crisis has become clearer with every single day."

Political analysts say Bligh wants to go to elections before jobless queues grew much longer in Queensland, which along with another major mining state, Western Australia, has been hit by mine cutbacks and the shelving of major projects.

Queensland's jobless rate jumped to 4.4 percent in January from 3.9 percent in December as miners shed jobs. That is still below the 4.8 percent national rate, but is accelerating at a faster pace.

On Friday, credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the state's long-term rating to AA+ from AAA, citing a deterioration in the state's budget. It said the outlook was stable.