Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Queensland families are struggling in Labor's cost-of-living crisis. The Queensland Council of Social Service said today that 94 per cent of the state is worried about the cost of living. It said the average Queensland family is over budget by $116 a week. This is actually an improvement on last year's figures, thanks to Queensland taxpayers forking out $1,000 energy rebates and sustaining 50-cent public transport fares.

However, these transparent vote-buying stunts will not last after the state election in October, and Queensland families will face even further hardship. It's in this space that Premier Steven Miles is actually considering a taxpayer funded bailout of a multibillion-dollar casino operator. Star casino's $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf development is clearly more important to the Premier than the tents of homeless Queenslanders going up on the nearby riverbank. It appears to be more important than all the reports of shocking mismanagement of Star Entertainment.

We have hundreds of businesses in the city of Brisbane struggling with reduced revenue thanks to Labor's cost-of-living crisis. They have incurred massive payroll tax hikes and are being forced to compete with businesses at Queen's Wharf. Unlike what Premier Miles has proposed for Star Entertainment, they will not have the ability to defer payroll tax. I can think of better things on which to spend Queensland's money, like the Bruce Highway, urgently needed resources for struggling regional health services or better solutions to out-of-control crime. This deal, proposed just before Queensland enters caretaker mode, stinks to high heaven. One Nation will never support it, and, if we win the balance of power in October, there will be no bailout of Star casino.