Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to make a personal appeal. With unemployment running at 5.3 per cent in my state of Queensland, where there's barely one crane on the Brisbane skyline, unemployment is nearly two points higher than in New South Wales and unemployment is nearly a full point higher than in Victoria, my plea is to the Labor Premier of the state of Queensland. Put my people back to work. Let my people work. Let my people build Victoria Point bypass instead of studying it. Let my people build the Redland Hospital car park instead of studying it. Let us expand Redlands hospital instead of studying it. Put recreational jobs back in Leslie Harrison Dam instead of gutting the dam. Let the tourism jobs on North Stradbroke Island flourish instead of shutting down my island by trebling vehicle permit fees. Don't sack the chaplain at Coolnwynpin State School, as Labor has. My plea to the Premier is: put my people back to work. I'm not talking about jobs as a program officer in the Queensland Public Service. We're covered with thousands of new Public Service jobs, because they'll vote Labor while they stand by the water bubbler and the pot plants in a high-rise building. I'm talking about real jobs, with steel cap boots and high-vis jackets, that build things that work for Queenslanders. We're talking about multiplier effects and opportunities for Queensland. It's not happening under a Labor Premier on the non-striker's end. (Time expired)