Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to address my comments to those who are watching and listening to this broadcast, and I want to ask them to have an open mind. They will think that in what I am doing I am taking some kind of political tack. It is not; it is just a statement of fact. I ask them to listen to the facts. It flows from the announcement yesterday of a state election in Queensland.

For months and months and months, the Premier has been saying, ‘We will go our full term.’ When asked by the media, ‘When is the election?’ she said, ‘We will go our full term.’ As late as last week, she said, ‘We will go our full term.’ What we now find out is, of course, that all of the material was produced for an election, a Women’s Weekly supplement was produced for the election and all the advertisements were booked, but the Premier was still saying, ‘We’re going to go our full term.’ I get a bit cynical about that, and I hope that those who are listening and watching tonight will also get a bit cynical about that. It is wrong to mislead the electorate, and it is wrong to enter a situation where you basically tell a porky. I think the people of Australia and Queensland deserve better than that. But we have an election—an early election. People will be unhappy, and they—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, on a point of order, I am very disappointed to hear the member for Herbert impugning the motives of another parliament in his reference to a porky, which is akin to saying someone is lying. I think that is inappropriate in his speech.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The parliamentary secretary probably does have a point. I would ask the member for Herbert to observe the etiquette of the House.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. I do not think there was a point, but anyway. Back to the Queensland government. This is a government that sent Queensland broke in the middle of a mining boom. This is the Labor Party all over.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You had a mining boom and wasted it.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, please ask the member to cease interjecting.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The parliamentary secretary will desist from interjecting.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a government that sent Queensland broke in a mining boom. How could that be? Now we have got a $3,500 million interest bill—a three and a half thousand million dollar interest bill in Queensland. We are going to go for a debt of $71,000 million. How will Queenslanders ever pay that off? Here federally what happened was that it took us 10 years to pay off $96 billion of debt. With Queensland having a much smaller revenue base, how on earth are they going to pay off $71 billion? The answer is that they are not. Queensland has been saddled with a debt forever and interest payments forever by a Labor Party government.

Back to the federal situation: look at what is happening federally. What is different with Labor? Now we are looking at borrowing $200,000 million. The interest bill on that is $10,000 million a year—$10,000 million in dead payments in interest. How we are going to pay that off? It took 10 years to pay off Labor’s previous debt. Now they are doubling the debt that is occurring, how are we going to pay that off? It is very concerning indeed. I say to those who are watching and listening tonight that nothing has changed. Whether it is state or federal—debt, debt, debt. Tick it up on the future and let the kids pay. Well, that is not on as far as the coalition is concerned, and that is why we opposed the stimulus package and wanted to produce a stimulus package that cost half of what Labor’s proposal is but delivered twice the stimulus. Why on earth the Labor Party would not listen to a proposal like that, which gives a better deal to the Australian taxpayer, I do not know.

I will finish on a positive note. We all support federal funding for the redevelopment of the Townsville Mall and we all support federal funding for the redevelopment of the Townsville Harbour with the ocean terminal precinct. I thank my Labor colleagues for their support.