Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to be able to jump in on the back of this debate, where we speak today about public transport cuts in Queensland.

Can I share with the room and the parliament that public transport cuts have had little or no effect in the great seat of Wright, my electorate—

An honourable member: Because they have a good local member!

Because I can tell you we do not have any! There are a number of towns—small towns under 500—that have no bus service. Twenty-five years of Labor rule. But Queenslanders are very loyal—very, very loyal. We had 25 years of Labor in state rule and then we had 25 years, roughly, of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen-led government and then we have just come out of roughly a quarter of a century of Labor rule again under a—

An honourable member: How was that?

We had Beattie, Goss and Anna Bligh.

An honourable member: Some of those Joh Bjelke—

Can I tell you that it was interesting today to be able to stand here before the House and to contribute to the debate. Why is it that we are debating state issues in this House? I would suggest that there is one reason. There is one reason why we are debating state issues in here. It is because here we have a Labor government federally that have run out of things to say when it comes to selling the benefits of Labor federally because they cannot talk about boats. We have to talk about public transport; we cannot talk about the 40,000 illegal immigrants who have reached our shores.

We cannot talk about health; in fact, the Labor member spoke about the blowtorch to Queensland Health. Can I tell you what Queensland Health is dealing with at the moment? There is currently court action for a Queensland Health worker who embezzled $16 million out from underneath the nose of Queensland Health officials—

An honourable member: $16 million?

$16 million.

An honourable member: Half your campaign budget!

Hah, yes! And not a word to be said about the management of Queensland Health. Not a word. Why are we talking about this?

Can I also make the point, while we are talking about the blowtorch to the public service: in the last Bligh-led term of Labor's last legacy, there was an increase of 23,000 public servants. There was a mandate that was set upon by this government. Twenty-three thousand public servants: we have made a commitment that when we get in I think we will make rational cuts to the tune of around 11 or 14,000 personnel by not renewing contracts. No-one should ever dance on the grave of someone losing their job, and it is an area that I do feel uncomfortable with and would like to speak on in another debate in a different forum.

Could I also remind this House as to why we would be speaking about the public service when we have been talking about cuts to public transport services in Queensland? It is because they cannot talk about the blowout of the economy up there when it comes to putting in a water grid when not a litre has gone through?

We have a desalination plant up there which has not had one litre of water—

Honourable members interjecting—

I do not know what the cost of it was, but not one litre has gone through. I thank the honourable members for their assistance in highlighting the devastating inefficiencies of the Labor government in Queensland.

Democracy is a beautiful thing. Guess what it shows—people have had enough in Queensland. It is widespread. I do not think there is a state anywhere in Australia which saw such a widespread shift away from the inefficient, dysfunctional Labor government, which we saw up in Queensland under the direction of Campbell Newman. A recent poll, in the newspapers this weekend, has Campbell Newman at the same level of popularity as on the day he was elected to the parliament of Queensland. That is a rousing endorsement for what Campbell Newman and his government are doing up there! That is waste and mismanagement which we as the LNP will have to preside over for many years. Getting the credit rating back for Queensland is one of our priorities in doing that so that we can secure funds to build the infrastructure needed for the future.

In closing, Acting Deputy Speaker, I can assure you that, when this Labor government come to this house and speak on state issues, the only reason is that they have simply run out of things to say from a federal perspective. It is an embarrassment. Hopefully democracy will rule and show the true way on 14 September in Queensland. (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.

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