Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning in this chamber in my three-minute statement I described the impact of a Labor government on the economy of Australia, particularly on rural and regional Australia. I spoke of Emerald and Blackwater, in the heart of the Bowen coal basin; the control that unions had over the practices on the coalfields and the impact that that had on those communities; and the contrast between what was witnessed in those communities and what we have today—thriving, growing towns. In fact, as I said this morning, Blackwater is a town now growing once again, whereas under a Labor government administration, because of the dominance and control that the unions had in the workplace at that time, houses were actually being transported out of that town into other communities. Instead of what we had then—towns in their death throes—we now have towns in a revival mode, growing strongly, and small businesses establishing in these communities.

To see the impact a Labor administration here in Canberra could have in rural towns, you need look no further than when Wayne Goss was the Premier of Queensland and his chief adviser was the now Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd, and the impact that had on Queensland, particularly rural Queensland. The Leader of the Opposition claims that his experience as an adviser to the then Premier of Queensland gives him the credentials to be Prime Minister of Australia. If he claims that experience as his credentials, we should look at what he did while he was chief adviser and, for a period of time, secretary to the cabinet in Queensland under the premiership of Wayne Goss, and look at the impact on rural Queensland. Services were cut under that regime. Forty-six rural courthouses closed across rural Queensland. There were huge rail closures, resulting in the loss of some 420 jobs in Townsville whilst Wayne Goss was Premier and Kevin Rudd, the now Leader of the Opposition, was his adviser—420 jobs lost in Queensland Rail. We only need to look at what is happening in Queensland Rail now to see the problems that are directly related to the administration of the Goss government, the inaction of the Beattie government and the dominance of the unions in the Queensland public service and what it has meant to coal companies being able to export coal out of Queensland. It has been well recorded and written up in the last few days in our national newspapers.

We saw some 600 jobs cut within the department of primary industries in Queensland. Queensland is a large agricultural state. The second largest export from Queensland by value is the beef industry. Under Wayne Goss and his adviser, Kevin Rudd—now Leader of the Opposition—some 600 jobs were cut out of Queensland’s department of primary industries. More than 400 teaching jobs were cut from regional schools, for heavens sake. In his address in reply to the budget of the federal government, the Leader of the Opposition said that he wants to establish a technical classroom in every school in Queensland, but his record as an adviser to the then leader of the Labor government in Queensland, Premier Wayne Goss, states otherwise.

Looking further at his record, we see that he was not content with the railways, the schools and the courthouses, so he then went to look at the police stations. They became unmanned on weekends, and a one-man police station was closed and a two-man station became a one-man station. This was under the person who wants to put himself forward as a future Prime Minister of Australia and use his record in Queensland as the credentials for his eligibility to be Prime Minister of Australia. Some 403 teaching positions were lost. There were closures of small country schools. There was the relocation of regional education offices. Funds for rural school libraries were cut. Rural TAFE projects were cut. Funds for rural education projects were cut as well. (Time expired)