Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My home state of Queensland is being short-changed by the Palaszczuk Labor government on infrastructure development. They turned their backs on billions of dollars of infrastructure money associated with asset recycling. Queensland was to have access to the $5 billion first-come-first-served asset-recycling pool that would have allowed the Queensland government to work with the private sector to build billions of dollars of new infrastructure for Queensland. But thanks to Labor, Queensland will get none of this money.

So while the Palaszczuk government is rejecting money that will develop infrastructure and create jobs in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT are expected to generate more than $15 billion of infrastructure activity from their involvement. As if that stupidity was not enough, the Palaszczuk government refuses to outline their own plan for job-creating infrastructure projects. Sadly for Queenslanders, they do not have a plan.

Much of what Labor has done in Queensland since they came to power has been to scrap, sideline and stall major projects, and they have no ideas of their own to boost jobs. Back in April, the Labor Treasurer in Queensland, Curtis Pitt, could not even name the infrastructure projects when he was seeking funding from the federal government. On 1 May he tried to take credit for major projects initiated and funded by the LNP. After that he tried to claim that Queensland was in recession. There is no doubt about it, the Palaszczuk Labor government is completely clueless. On the one hand, the Queensland Treasurer says he wants to be positive about the Queensland economy and, on the other, last month, he falsely claimed that Queensland was in recession.

It is not just me saying that the Palaszczuk government has no idea. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland Director of Advocacy, Nick Behrens, also disagreed with Mr Pitt's assessment, last month, when he said: 'The danger of talking down the economy is that it undermines investment.' The logic of this should be very obvious to most people, except Mr Pitt and the Labor Party.

That is in direct contrast to the extensive list of infrastructure projects the LNP has and will deliver for Queensland. They are: the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, $1.6 billion; the Government Wireless Network, $457.3 million, net present value; the New Generation Rollingstock, $4.4 billion; Queensland Schools, $1.38 billion; the Queens Wharf Integrated Resort Development, which will be a multi-billion-dollar project that will create many jobs; the Commonwealth Games venues, which are three new venues and upgrades to eight existing venues; Yeerongpilly Green, 250 jobs and $850 million; Pacific View Estate on the Gold Coast, 3,500 homes and 2,700 new jobs; the Beaudesert Bypass, to help unlock new industrial jobs at the Bromelton State Development Area; and the Coomera Interchange, exit 54 on the Pacific Motorway, which will ensure that a new $1 billion commercial and retail precinct goes ahead at the Coomera Town Centre.

These are just some of the many projects that the LNP have delivered for the state of Queensland. All the Queensland Treasurer is doing at the moment is talking down the economy, depriving Queensland of major infrastructure projects that will increase the economic activity of our state, and many investors are throwing their hands up in the air. The government keep changing their minds from one day to the next. All that does is increase the sovereign risk of firms wanting to invest in our wonderful state of Queensland, when Queensland should be booming.

The Palaszczuk Labor government is inexperienced, incompetent and incapable of taking Queensland forward or building the much needed infrastructure that our state needs to take it forward, and it is incapable of fostering the business confidence that the business community so very desperately needs to ensure they have the confidence to invest in those projects and create jobs.

See this speech in context