Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I note the motion of the member for Moreton and thank him for it. It goes way beyond simply bus services in Brisbane. It talks about public transport in Queensland. It talks about the LNP state government's privatisation plans regarding state assets and government services. It condemns their sell-off of Queensland's public transport network, road, rail and ports. To confine this to simply bus services in Brisbane is a nonsense, because that is not the intention or the wording of the motion by the member for Moreton.

The LNP Queensland government is an object lesson in what conservative governments do: slash, cut and demoralise the Public Service; reduce services, including bus services; and refuse to invest in the future. They abandon those most in need and let them fend for themselves. Every Queensland state LNP candidate campaigned for improved bus services, yet they are utterly silent as the LNP state government cuts, slashes and burns public transport in Queensland. How disingenuous and deceptive they were.

Assets were sold to assist in funding investments in infrastructure made more urgent during the devastation of the 2011 flood. That is what the previous government did: selling assets in Queensland to make sure that we could invest in infrastructure, jobs and growth. But this LNP state government is simply slashing and burning. The LNP state members and the federal members opposite, my opponents opposite, take the blowtorch to the Public Service and would do so if they got onto the treasury bench federally.

Front-line services, including bus services, are under threat in Queensland, all in the name of the right-wing ideology of economic rationalism. They claim that it is because they cannot afford them. They quoted a $100 billion debt level, a figure made up by former Treasurer Peter Costello. After campaigning in the last election against asset sales and then using rubbery figures, the LNP state government in Queensland set about slashing 2,000 full-time jobs from Transport and Main Roads, including closing down the Main Roads office in the Ipswich and West Moreton region, in the heart of Ipswich Central. They closed it down. At the time, we had major road infrastructure and public transport taking place in Ipswich.

The LNP state government have abdicated their responsibilities for services not just in rail and not just in bus services but also in education and health, slashing bus services in South-East Queensland and asking councils to pick up the cost. Now there are 111 bus services in South-East Queensland that are on the chopping block.

It was only strong community protest in the Somerset region, led by fearless Somerset regional councillor, Jim Madden, and community groups which saved route 529 from Toogoolawah to Ipswich. This is a service that makes the people in the Brisbane Valley able to get to health, education, recreational and other services and pursuits in Ipswich. This is the only viable public transport option for the people in the Somerset region who require access for medical services in Ipswich and Brisbane.

But those opposite have been silent as Campbell Newman has slashed and burned services—not just bus services. So those opposite have some things to explain. We saw the member for Ryan talking about bus services and buses provided by her former colleagues in the Brisbane City Council, failing to recognise the huge capital infrastructure spend by the former Queensland Labor government, which invested money to purchase those buses. That is what she fails to do. She does not seriously believe that the ratepayers of Brisbane paid for those buses? They were purchased by funding from the state Labor government.

So I wonder how people in Queensland are meant to get to work if the bus services are slashed across Brisbane and the rest of South-East Queensland? To hospitals and to universities? This is the heartlessness of those opposite. This is the heartlessness and the silence; the inaction and inertia from the LNP state members opposite from Queensland. Campbell Newman claims that he wants change, but Campbell Newman wants change in Queensland for the worse. He deceived the people of Queensland; he deceived them on bus services, he deceived them on rail services and on road infrastructure.

What about the rail crossing in Brisbane? The member for Brisbane, my political opponent over there, claims she supported it. Now she opposes it; she is topsy-turvy, Arthur or Martha! Guess what? The road infrastructure in Queensland will be slashed under a Tony Abbott government. Even the Ipswich Motorway— (Time expired)

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