Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to inform the House of the good work being undertaken by local candidates in my electorate of Wright in the upcoming state election assisting 'Can-Do' Campbell Newman to restore some type of coalition government to the state. Under 22-plus years of Labor government rule in Queensland, the state is suffering from the scars that Labor normally inflict. The peak forecasted debt in this state is $84 billion. To put what our candidates are having to deal with into some type of context, if we go back to the Paul Keating era, I think the Labor national debt was $97 billion. Queensland's peak debt alone will be $84 billion under a Labor government.

Campbell 'Can-Do' Newman's contribution and trying to turn the state around is going to be made a little bit easier with the quality of candidates that we have in Queensland, particularly Jon Krause from the seat of Beaudesert, which is fully within my electorate. Jon has been tirelessly out on the streets working, bringing people to the electorate to support and strengthen 'Can-Do' Campbell Newman's four pillar profile of enhancing tourism, agriculture, the resources sector and, of course, construction. He has brought Warren Truss through the electorate. He has brought through Mark McArdle, Fiona Simpson, Senator Barnaby Joyce, Andrew Powell—the shadow minister for the environment—and Andrew Cripps. The guy has not stopped. He is a lawyer by trade and used to work with one of the four major banks. He is a very stable guy and I think he will serve his electorate well. We take nothing for granted in that electorate. They are still a week out from polling day.

I would also like to take the opportunity to wish our incumbent members up there all the very best. These are seasoned campaigners: Ian Rickuss from the Lockyer Valley; Ros Bates from Mudgeeraba, about 9,000 of whose electors are within the seat of Wright; and Dr Alex Douglas from Gaven, about 3,000 of whose voters are within the electorate of Wright. There is also Mike Pucci, a candidate running for the seat of Logan. They are all part of the 'Can-Do' Newman team. Some of the policy reforms that they have squared up are policies like reforming the electricity tariffs, sorting out water prices, scrapping stamp duty on the family homes, scrapping Labor's waste tax, reintroducing weekly tickets to public transport and halving Labor's fare increases on the buses, lifting payroll and tax threshold, restoring front-line services—in particular an extra 1,100 police on the beat and taking 200 police from the back office and putting them out on the beat—and improving access to specialists. In addition to that, Campbell has made it extremely clear that a vote for any other party is a vote for Labor.