Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The only relevant point that was made by Senator Brandis in his contribution was that there is an election this Saturday in Queensland. He referred to jobs. When I refer to jobs I think about workers, and I think about their conditions of employment. Just recently the Liberal National Party in Queensland made a promise that they will cap workers' pay increases at one per cent. We are talking about nurses. We are talking about nurses like my wife. We are talking about police officers and hardworking teachers out there who are going to have their wage increases capped at one per cent. If you want those sorts of conditions in Queensland, vote for an LNP government, because that is what you are in for: a one per cent pay increase per year. What an absolute disgrace.

There have been a lot of other things happening in Queensland leading up to this election campaign and throughout it. Just recently Campbell Newman—I would not call him a member; he is the leader of a party, the Liberal National Party, but holds no seat—has distanced himself from statements made by Clive Palmer about having some association with the CIA and the United States government over an environmental campaign against coal workers being funded by them.

On the subject of the environment, we only need to look at the policies of the Liberal National Party in Queensland to know what they will do to the environment. We know what their policy is on wild rivers; and that is something that I am passionate about. They will wind them back. They will wind those rivers back to allow mining in areas like the Wenlock River. I do not think Campbell Newman has ever been up there. He is too busy, with his miners cap on, with the light in the front—a little fellow running around in tunnels, looking for another tunnel to implement somewhere in Queensland. I am sure he has never been up to the cape, with his little miners cap on. He is too busy looking at those failed tunnels in Queensland that put the Brisbane City Council in enormous debt. If you want debt in Queensland, vote for an LNP government, because you will get Campbell Newman with his miners cap on, searching around with his torchlight, looking for another cross-river tunnel. That is what we are in for in Queensland if we end up with Campbell Newman. Talking about improprieties, the CMC recently investigated what Campbell Newman has been involved in, and it has already come out that there will be an investigation through the Ombudsman about the donations to the Liberal National Party Forward Brisbane Leadership fund made the week before a controversial development was approved by the Brisbane City Council—the Brisbane City Council that Campbell Newman was the Lord Mayor of. So the CMC, the Crime and Misconduct Commission, is going to investigate, through the Ombudsman, those donations to your party, Senator Brandis. That is what they are looking at.

Remember Joh Bjelke-Petersen? We are going to return to the bad old days of Joh Bjelke-Petersen if people elect the Liberal National Party in Queensland. Just to give you some idea of the calibre of some of the candidates that they are supporting, there is a candidate on the Gold Coast who has already been linked to pornography websites. This is the sort of candidate the Liberal National Party wants to endorse and support—someone who promotes pornography on a website. Then we go to the Far North of the state, up to Cairns. The Liberal National Party candidate up there talks about women who go out dressed for a good night and wear maybe a miniskirt or a nice blouse—