Labor’s ‘Recovery Action Plan’ a lesson in deception and electioneering
Member for Herbert Phillip Thompson says the State Labor Government is attempting to deceive the people of Townsville 38 days out from the State Election with the release of what Premier Palaszczuk is calling a ‘Recovery Action Plan’.
Mr Thompson said the plan failed to address the critical question of how the Government would pay for its promises and feared Queenslanders would spend decades paying off debt under another four years of Labor.
“It’s disappointing but not surprising to see the State Labor Government splashing cash ahead of the election in order to score political points with no plan to pay down the debt that it will incur,” Mr Thompson said.
“Let’s not forget that despite the Queensland Labor Treasurer’s refusal to hand down a budget we know they had run us into nearly $100b worth of debt before anyone even knew what COVID-19 was.
“This isn’t a recovery action plan, it’s a plan to drive the State into even more debt and deficit. Once again State Labor is playing politics with the pandemic.”
Mr Thompson said the Premier was trying to trick North Queenslanders into thinking she was coming to the region’s rescue.
“The Labor Premier has refused money from the Federal Government, and then borrowed to fund election promises. In her plan she’s included $195m funding that was offered for Stage 2 of the Haughton Pipeline by the Federal Government but that she rejected,” he said.
“She’s also attempting to pull the wool over North Queenslanders’ eyes by including the Federal Government’s 75% majority portion of funding for Ring Road Stage 5 ($184m) which was already announced and committed to back in April last year. State Labor has actually only contributed $46m and the project was well into the planning before COVID-19.”
Mr Thompson also said the funding commitment for driver education and training precinct DriveIT NQ didn’t go far enough.
“After so many years of putting DriveIT in the too-hard-basket and stringing along the community of hard-working volunteers, the $10m worth of support she’s provided falls short of the $12m the team had been calling for,” he said.
“We stepped up to the plate with two commitments totaling $12m over the last few years, so it’s disappointing to see that they don’t back this economy-driving project as much as we do.
“It’s clear Labor has been dragged kicking and screaming to fund it just to try and save their own skin.”
Mr Thompson said he was pleased the Premier had heeded his calls to match funding for Big Rocks Weir and critical assistance for businesses affected by COVID-19.
“I’m pleased to see the Premier has responded to calls to match our investment of $30m for Big Rocks Weir,” he said.
“I’m also pleased that payroll tax relief will continue and more job support loans will be offered after I wrote to the State Government in April advocating for both measures.”
ENDS