Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. The member for Denison asked the Prime minister what they would do with promises made by Labor candidates in seats where Labor did not win. The Prime Minister stood at the dispatch box, hand on heart, and said: 'Our promises were fully costed, every one of them. Of course they will be delivered. Of course they will. We don't go around making promises that we won't fulfil.' So I dashed off a letter, to which there has still been no reply.

Senator Jan McLucas was in Townsville. She was asked about the Magnetic Island walkway and she said, 'Of course, the candidate made the promise, not a minister or the Prime Minister.' It could be a loophole. So we went back and checked the Hansard. The Prime Minister stood at the dispatch box and said that whether the promise was made by a candidate, by a minister or by her it would be kept. So I do not know if Jan McLucas is calling the Prime Minister out for telling untruths. But now we find that the Townsville City Council has been told by this government—this government that cannot tell the truth—that they now have approval to apply to the regional development authority for funding. So that promise was that they were allowed to fill out an application form.

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