I agree with Annastacia Palaszczuk. The last thing Queensland needs is a change of direction, but it is the Labor party that is trying to change the direction of Queensland.
The Brisbane-centric, Labor-Greens Queensland government has been trying to conduct radical surgery to change Queensland’s identity. Labor has spent five years denigrating our coal industry, imposing massive new regulations on farmers and letting crime spiral out of control.
Our identity as Queenslanders is entwined with what we produce. We are banana benders, we watch lightning crack over cane fields, it was a Queensland shearer that grabbed the jumbuck and our national airline starts with the letter ‘Q’. We mine coal, copper, gas, and bauxite. We make aluminium and zinc. And we grow cattle, cotton, grains and sheep. The lights would go out if it was not for the surplus of coal-fired power we create in Queensland.
Queensland is a producing state. Over our storied history, we have paid the bills for the nation, not racked them up.
We are proud of the jobs and wealth we create. Queenslanders don’t sit on the couch watching Netflix, we get up and clear Brigalow to create more farms, we build rail lines to open up new mines and we build power stations that are now providing power to the nation.
When future historians write about the last five years of the Palaszczuk-Trad government they may call it the “great pause”. It has been a period that we have stopped building things. A period in which we have stopped playing our role as builders for our great nation.
The Palaszczuk-Trad government tried to lead the Adani project to a political dead end. Who remembers the Calley Valley wetlands? It is an man-made swamp near Adani’s port at Bowen, built in the 1960s to attract ducks for shooters. That was the reason Labor wouldn’t approve Adani in 2015. Remember the blackthroated finch? You can buy them for $20 on gumtree but that was the reason Labor held up Adani last year.
Labor only approved Adani after they were thumped in last year’s federal election. As it turns out, Adani is on track to complete their mine and rail line in a quicker time than it took Labor to approve Adani’s black throated finch management plan.
This Labor-Green government still refuses to approve the New Acland Mine after 13 years of consideration. You can put a child through primary and secondary school quicker than this mob can make a decision.
There are 500 coal miners and their families facing an uncertain Christmas because this so-called Labor government won’t look after labourers. Over the past year, the Labor government has destroyed the Paradise Dam, reducing its size by more than half. Family farmers now have to survive with less water and there will be fewer farming jobs because Labor can’t build a dam to basic safety standards.
To recover from the coronavirus we have to get back to building things. The LNP is proposing to rediscover Queenslanders’ natural building and producing instincts. We will build a series of dams as part of the New
Bradfield scheme.
We will build a four-lane highway from Brisbane to Cairns to open up our state. And we will open up the Galilee Basin creating a new coal and gas basin to create thousands of Queensland jobs.
When the Joh Government wanted to open up the Central Queensland coal fields by building rail lines, the CSIRO advised against it because they were worried we would run out of coal. Lucky Joh ignored them and built them anyway, creating an industry that is now one of our top exports.
There are always people willing to give in to those who find reasons not to do something. It is time for Queensland to have some doers back in charge. To rediscover Queensland’s spirit we have to kick this government out.
