The Labor party seems intent to force the shut down of Australia’s coal industry even as we see record demand for our coal.
Labor has made lavish promises that coal miners will instead be able to work in hydrogen or batteries but these promises are being broken even before they succeed in shutting down the coal mines.
Before the last election the Prime Minister came to Gladstone and promised a $100 million battery precinct for Gladstone as part of their National Battery Strategy.
When they made the announcement, the now Minister for Industry promised it for Gladstone but they gave us an insight that it was never going to be delivered here, with no mention of Gladstone in the media release, only talking about regional Queensland.
Senator Murray Watt, having been at the announcement, wasn’t so careful and made a post on Facebook saying this new precinct would be located in Gladstone.
But as is becoming routine with this Government it shouldn’t be a surprise that when they released their Battery Strategy three weeks ago there was no mention that this precinct was going to be in Gladstone.
In fact, there was no mention of where the precinct would be except that it would be somewhere in Queensland.
Labor had made a promise to the people of Gladstone before the election, but it seems again they were reneging on a promise to Central Queensland.
This is just business as usual for this Government after they initially cut the funding for the Rockhampton Ring Road and the Beef Corridors, with the Ring Road funding only being restored after the community pushed back.
When I questioned departmental officials about the location of the precinct at Senate Estimates last week, they said they were looking at a variety of sites, including locations in Brisbane.
Even after being provided with the evidence that a commitment to Gladstone had been the response from the department officials was “We will consider something in Gladstone.”
They could produce no evidence that they had been given a direction that the precinct needed to be located in Gladstone from the Minister.
It wasn’t until the Minister at the table stepped in was there any commitment that any part of this precinct would be in Gladstone, but even then, we were told only part of it would be located here.
This Labor Government keeps trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Central Queenslanders, hoping we just forget the promises of investment that they have made for our region.
Central Queensland is funding the federal government’s budget with the tax dollars that are generated from our agricultural and mining industries but we’re still being made to fight for what we were promised.
When a promise is made before an election politicians need to keep them, because people vote based on those promises, and if they’re not kept it further erodes the trust in our political system.
