James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I want to remind the Senate and the country about the atrocities that took place on 7 October, when we saw the largest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. Since then, more than 200 people have been held hostage by the terrorist group Hamas, the latest horror being the six hostages brutally murdered by Hamas in Gaza just last month. The names of those six were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Eden Yerushalmi and Ori Danilo. May they now rest in peace and may their murderers rest in hell forever and ever.

Twice before in this Australian Senate I have read out the names of all hostages being held by Hamas. As of today, a total of 97 hostages remain unaccounted for after being kidnapped by the terrorist group Hamas on 7 October. We need to bring them all home: the grandparents, the mums and dads, the sons and daughters, the friends and neighbours—people just like you and me. These are their names: Alexander Trupanov; Ariel Cunio; Arbel Yahud; David Cunio; Doron Steinbrecher; Naama Levy; Yousef Zyadna; Hamza Zyadna; Elad Katzir; Ohad Ben Ami; Gali and Ziv Berman, twin brothers; Shlomo Mansour; Daniela Gilboa; Matan Angrest; Eli Sharabi; Agam Berger; Edan Alexander; Kaid Farhan Elkadi; Matan Zanguaker; Eitan Horn; Yair Horn; Keith Seigel; Omri Miran; Bipin Joshi; Ilan Weiss; Oded Lifshitz; Omer Neutra; Itzhk Elgarat; Gadi Moses; Nimrod Cohen; Tsachi Idan; Yarden Bibas; Ronen Engel; Karina Ariev; Ofer Kalderon; Omri Miran; Liri Elbag; Omer Shem Tov; Idan Shtivi; Yosef Ohana; Avinatan Or; Guy Gilboa-Dalal; Eitan Mor; Alon Ohel; Maxim Kharkin; Segev Kalfon; Romi Lesham Gonen; Bar Kuperstein; Eliya Cohen; Elkana Bohbot; Rom Braslavski; Omer Wenkert; Evyatar David; Ohad Yahalomi; Tal Shoham; Sagui Dekel-Chen; Watchara Sriuan.

These are our people. They should be home with their families, and the war in Gaza will only end when all hostages come home alive to their families.

Deputy President, there are 45 days until the Queensland state election, when we can finally show the abysmal Labor government the door in 2024, so I thought I would take the opportunity today to outline 45 reasons, because there are 45 days to go, why Queenslanders should vote out this abysmal Palaszczuk-Miles—oh, and Fentiman—Labor government. In Queensland:

No. 1: we have the worst ambulance ramping in Australia.

No. 2: we've had $20 billion in budget blowouts.

No. 3: we've had the broken promise on police numbers.

No. 4: we've had the broken promise on teacher numbers.

No. 5: the elective surgery waitlist has doubled.

No. 6: car thefts are up 101 per cent.

No. 7: we've got more victims of crime than any other state.

No. 8: they continue to appoint disgraced CFMEU members to government boards.

No. 9: we've had the debacle of the Gabba development—$2.7 billion worth.

No. 10: new housing lot approval has declined by 30 per cent, while our population has grown.

No. 11: the state housing fund hasn't built a single new home.

No. 12: rents are up 66 per cent.

No 13. insurance costs are up 80 per cent.

No. 14: repeat youth offenders are up 62 per cent.

No, 15: 45,000 Queenslanders are waiting on the social housing list.

No. 16: they wasted $220 million of taxpayers' money on Wellcamp.

No. 17: they spent $170,000 to take two jets to Townsville for a day trip.

No. 18: there are nearly 290,000 people waiting to see a specialist.

No. 19: they promised no new taxes, but they've introduced seven new taxes.

No. 20: SEQ bulk water charges are up 52 per cent.

No. 21: they attempted to cover up the $2.4 billion train cost blowout.

No. 22: childcare costs are up 35 per cent.

No. 23: they spent $300,000 on Jackie Trad's legal fees and attempted to cover it up.

No. 24: they cut a billion dollars in infrastructure in cahoots with federal Labor.

No. 25: they failed to maintain power plants.

No. 26: they actually failed to plan for any new roads.

No. 27: maternity services are on bypass, especially in regional Queensland.

No. 28: DV order breaches are up 182 per cent.

No. 29: we had the Callide Power Station explosion.

No. 30: we've had the Griffith University housing bungle.

No. 31: Queensland actually is just one giant crime scene.

No. 32: we've got a massive cost-of-living crisis.

No. 33: Cross River Rail is years late and billions over budget.

No. 34: there has been a 105 per cent increase in children in residential care.

No. 35: power prices are up by three times the national average.

No. 36: they failed to build one new flood levee or dam.

No. 37: assaults are up 198 per cent.

No. 38: thefts are up 45 per cent.

No. 39: robberies are up 123 per cent.

No. 40: they claimed that the youth crime crisis was a media beat-up.

No. 41: they've actually created a housing crisis in Queensland.

No. 42: we've got the Olympics planning debacle, where they've actually done no work in preparation for the Olympics in 2032.

No. 43: they spent $2 million on advertising just to employ two tradies.

No. 44: paramedics spent 160,000 hours ramped in 2023.

No. 45: we have the lowest rate of homeownership in the nation.

Labor has been in power for 30 of the last 35 years in Queensland. This list of all the failures and all the damage that state Labor has done to Queensland could go on and on and on. Queensland was once the Sunshine State, but now it is the state where dreams go to die because we have a state Labor government who are more interested in their own re-election and their own power plays to determine who will sit on ministerial leather, rather than in fixing the cost-of-living crisis, the housing crisis, the health crisis or the crime crisis. It is only 45 days until the state election in Queensland. It's 33 days until Queenslanders start voting. I call on all Queenslanders to come together and vote in a David Crisafulli LNP government that will focus on your priorities and focus on fixing up the crisis that is impacting our state because of the do-nothing, know-nothing bunch of lazy so-and-sos who are the Labor Party and who aren't looking after Queenslanders.