Teresa Gambaro (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Friday, 27 July was a very sad day for communities across Queensland. It was the day that the guillotine fell on councils across the state, echoed by the shameful guillotined debate on the amalgamation legislation in the state parliament today. The Redcliffe City Council and the Redcliffe community in my electorate will be badly affected by Queensland Labor’s undemocratic, unfair and unnecessary council amalgamations. On 27 July Peter Beattie and Andrew Fraser dismissed the history and identity of Redcliffe with a plan to amalgamate Redcliffe City Council with the Pine Rivers and Caboolture shires. There is nothing ‘super’ for Redcliffe residents about the plan to create a super-sized council. Redcliffe’s voice will be drowned out.

Redcliffe is widely known as Queensland’s first European settlement. Matthew Flinders first visited the area in 1799 and some 25 years later Redcliffe was home to the first penal colony, which was subsequently moved to the banks of the Brisbane River in 1825. But Redcliffe’s rich history and identity mean nothing to the state Labor government in Queensland. Redcliffe councillors, I might add, are completely demoralised by the forced amalgamations as the minutes of their 30 July general meeting reveal. I would urge members to take a look. Councillor Rae Frawley said that the heart had been torn out of her and the community. Councillor James Houghton said that the government had ‘lost the plot’. But the most revealing observation came from Councillor Peter Houston. Councillor Houston suggested that the council would be shut down in payback for their support of the federal government workplace reforms when he said it was due to:

... the fact that this Council has aligned itself with WorkChoices in accord with the advices of the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) in respect of being determined as a constitutional corporation, which was against the opinion of the AWU.

The role of Mr Bill Ludwig, National President of the Australian Workers Union, in the process was questioned, given his appointment to the State Transition Committee and given that the new council area would be the third largest in Queensland.

Councillor Houston further suggested that the only ones deriving benefits from such a huge population base would be the political parties, which would give them more power.

Might I add, that means the AWU. Labor is using the rushed local council reform as an excuse for a power grab, plain and simple. It is a power grab for Labor and for the unions and it is not at all about protecting local communities. I ask the premier to come clean on Bill Ludwig’s role and Bill Ludwig overseeing the local government reform and he should admit that it is really about consolidating union power.

The people of Redcliffe see through this power grab. That is why 22,000 Redcliffe residents signed the petition and it was delivered to state parliament yesterday by Councillor Sutherland. This power grab is symbolic of a power-drunk premier, a man arrogant enough to think that he can rule for 100 years. Labor is struggling—he said it yesterday—to manage the economy. It is struggling to deliver on water, roads and healthcare. State Labor is completely failing the needs of all Queenslanders. Nevertheless, it was absolute sheer arrogance to believe that it can evaluate service delivery standards, financial performance and determine the viability of councils.

If Labor were serious about reform they would look at reforming their own performance. You might recall that Premier Peter Beattie once enthusiastically explained that he would make fixing the health system an absolute priority. In February last year he even went on to say that he would stake his job on improving the health system.

I’m hoping—

and these are Premier Beattie’s words—

that we will have a significant turn of the corner by the end of the year and, and if not, I shall fall on my sword and accept responsibility and that’s exactly what will happen.

What has happened since then? It has been abysmal. The State of our public hospitals report for 2007 is sober reading. It shows that the level of patient service in the emergency departments is alarming. It is rated sixth in the country for the percentage of patients that are treated within a clinical time. But even worse, in my own area recently a well-renowned heart-lung specialist, Professor John Dunning, resigned from Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. He resigned because he was not getting enough funding from the Beattie government to run the heart-lung centre. He was not getting funding to train young doctors and to do the much-needed research. Ratepayers in Redcliffe will be suffering and they will be suffering throughout Queensland as a result of these amalgamations. All these amalgamations will do is increase council rates and reduce services for local residents. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.