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

The Labor Party have already, on the two issues that I have given you, spent twice the budget, so where will we get the money from? Up will go the GST. The sorts of things Labor does in government are demonstrated by the council amalgamations issue. I will not talk about the amalgamations as such, but there are transition committees to work between councils that are going to be amalgamated. What comprises those committees? Two members of one of the councils to be amalgamated, two members of the other council to be an amalgamated and, according to the evidence given to our committee, three unionists, only two of whom are from one of those cities and the other is from Brisbane, some 3,000 kilometres away.

That transition committee is top-heavy with unionists. I asked any witness: who has actually elected these unionists? Nobody knows. They are not elected people, but they are there to work through and set the groundwork for the amalgamated councils. In the case of the amalgamation of Townsville, my home city, and Thuringowa, there are two representatives from the Townsville City Council—Labor controlled; two representatives from the independent Thuringowa council; and three unionists. So you would not be surprised, Mr Deputy Speaker, to find that any vote in that committee has been determined by five Labor votes to two independent votes. This is the sort of activity the Labor Party engages in in my home state Queensland, so you can imagine what will happen if the Labor Party also has the federal government after the end of the year.

These things should be and, as I know from my travels around my state, are matters of very grave importance to the people of Queensland and, indeed, to the people of Australia. I am concerned at the thought of all governments joining together to do things like increasing the GST. Stopping free speech as they did in Queensland, having a health system that is just plain dangerous and neglecting infrastructure, as Labor governments have done, are all things that will be repeated. It is not a question of listening to what Mr Rudd says. It is very much a case of seeing what Labor governments have done in power. In power, they had interest rates at 17½ per cent on home loan mortgages. I paid 17½ per cent—and one day I shall table in this parliament my bank statement to show that. Labor talk about low interest rates but, when they are in power, see what they do: you have interest rates at 17½ per cent. (Time expired)