Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to speak in the House tonight. I want to speak a little about the upcoming Queensland state election. I am a born and bred proud Queenslander. My home town, the wonderful city of Gladstone, is in Central Queensland. My home town of Gladstone, my electorate of Flynn, my state of Queensland and Australia generally, as we all know, are facing the worst financial crisis to hit our shores since the Great Depression. In the face of insurmountable and overwhelming evidence supporting this fact, I was absolutely floored—in fact, stunned—to read on the ABC News website, in an article posted on Tuesday, 24 February 2009, comments attributable to the bloke who wants to lead my proud state as Premier of Queensland from the next election and beyond, the Liberal National Party Leader of the Opposition, Lawrence Springborg. I will quote from the article:

Liberal National Party Leader Lawrence Springborg says the global financial crisis is a side issue for Queensland.

Mr Springborg is quoted as saying:

“With regards to this global financial crisis, it is again the triumph of salesmanship over substance in Queensland, where the Government is trying to align an issue which is external, which is only peripheral to what is happening in Queensland.”

The Leader of the Opposition in Queensland does not have a clue about what is happening in the Queensland economy. He is completely out of touch, and he wants to lead my state of Queensland. Mr Springborg might want to tell all the workers in Queensland who have lost their jobs recently that the global financial crisis is a side issue for Queensland. He might want to come and tell my workers in Flynn, the hundreds and hundreds who have lost their jobs recently, that the global financial crisis is a side issue for them. He might want to come and tell my small business operators who are suffering in Flynn that the global financial crisis is a side issue for Queensland and for them. He might want to come and tell all my Rio Tinto workers in Flynn, at Yarwun 2 and RG, at smelters and elsewhere, that the global financial crisis is a side issue for them and for Queensland. These are good, hardworking men and women of my electorate who are terrified of losing their jobs. These are men and women whom I grew up with, went to school with, played football with and have lived with. He should come and tell all of those proud people what he thinks—that is, that the global financial crisis is only peripheral and a side issue for them and for Queensland. If Mr Springborg does not have a clue about the economy himself, I suggest that he pick up the phone and ring Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and other proud federal Labor Queensland members and find out what is really happening in Queensland.

The global financial crisis is not, as Mr Springborg would have it, an external issue for the mums and dads in my electorate of Flynn who have lost their jobs and are now struggling to put food on the table. It is not an external issue for the kids who are losing their jobs and who will become our modern day lost generation. This is real, Mr Springborg; the global financial crisis is very real and you should be ashamed of your comments made recently.

A global financial crisis denier like Lawrence Springborg is bad for Gladstone, bad for Flynn, bad for Queensland and bad for Australia. A few months ago Lawrence Springborg said Queensland should not be on a war footing to combat the global financial crisis. Again on ABC radio yesterday Mr Springborg said the crisis was external to Queensland and only peripheral to Queensland’s economic position. Well, I will tell you this, Lawrence: it is not external to families in Gladstone; it is not peripheral to kids who have lost their jobs or to families where their sole breadwinner is out of work. Lawrence Springborg is a global financial crisis denier who is not up to the task of running the state of Queensland.