Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You have a prospective alternative Prime Minister to this country with a frontbench of the calibre you have just seen demonstrated in the last couple of minutes. This prospective leader did not have the vision 10 years ago to understand the crisis Queensland would be in at this time. As the man who pulled the strings of the Queensland government back in those days, he had no vision whatsoever, no understanding of the future and no understanding of the huge infrastructure gaps.

Consider the amount of money that the Queensland government rakes in from the Commonwealth’s GST—a GST, I might say, that was opposed by the Labor Party; but, talk to any of their premiers now and see how they embrace the GST in all of its glory. People still do not quite understand that every single cent of the GST collected in Australia goes to the state governments, all of which at the moment are, regrettably, managed—or mismanaged—by the Labor Party.

I have to say my home state of Queensland has done better out of the GST than most other states, at least in the initial period. Queensland should be rolling in money—sufficient money to look after the health system that is grinding to a halt. It should have sufficient money to set up the infrastructure that is needed to assist what is Australia’s fastest-growing region. The south-east corner of Queensland is growing faster than any other region of Australia. People—and I can understand why this happens—leave Victoria and New South Wales in droves and come to the good state. Mr Beattie is getting all the additional revenue from conveyance duty and all of the GST money, and I think it has all been spent on spin doctors for Mr Beattie and his team.

Certainly, I do not think this proposal for the Traveston dam is serious. I am a bit disappointed that we are going to take the pressure off Mr Beattie by allowing this inquiry to go ahead, but the decision has been made. I will certainly be involved in the inquiry and will try to get these public servants that Senator Lundy appears to have guaranteed will appear—