Federal Member for Flynn Colin Boyce has labelled the State Labor Government’s Budget as all ‘smoke and mirrors.’
Mr Boyce said the Budget contained a raft of promises for the southeast corner and little for regional Queensland.
“I am pleased to see the State Labor Government has bowed to public pressure to make a commitment to address Mount Morgan’s water supplies,” Mr Boyce said.
“The challenges faced by Mount Morgan, and the responsibility of the State Labor Government to provide some answers to these problems, are something I have raised regularly both publicly and privately.
“Rockhampton Regional Council has been sending 20 trucks of water every day from Gracemere to Mt Morgan for a considerable time at ratepayers’ expense.
“The issue is that the funding for the pipeline is spanned over three years and the detailed designs are not complete. How long will the pipeline take to get built so that the people of Mount Morgan can have a permanent water solution?”
Mr Boyce said the Budget was full of re-announcements including $3.5m for the Moura Multipurpose Health Service which was announced in last year’s Budget.
“The Emerald Hospital has been allocated $8 million for the redevelopment of the emergency department and day surgery,” Mr Boyce said.
“At the 2019 federal election, the Liberal National Government committed $10 million for this redevelopment. The State Labor Government has taken $10 million over two financial years and no work has taken place.
“The State Labor Government is re-announcing Federal Government funding as their own which is absolutely appalling and highlights the management debacle in Queensland Health.”
He went on to say that that the State Labor Government has a clear agenda to close down the coal industry by imposing the world’s highest royalty taxes on the resources sector.
“The State Labor Government’s royalty hike will have a flow-on effect on the cost of living through higher electricity prices, higher construction costs which will affect Queensland consumers,” Mr Boyce said.
“The resources sector contributed $84.3 billion to the state economy last financial year through the flow-on effects of industry spending. It is a disgrace that the Labor State Government are treating the men and women in the industry as cash cows.
“The Labor State Government proved that they don’t want New Acland Stage 3 to go ahead and have been nothing but an obstacle for the Adani Carmichael Mine.
“What needed to be included in the Budget was a commitment to invest in coal fired power stations that will maximise supply and push energy prices down which are currently hurting Australians across the country.
“345 coals plants are under construction across the world with China being responsible for more than half while Australia is not building one.
“We can’t afford to wait for new technology to come along, we’ve got to start building what works now which is baseload coal fired power stations which is something the Queensland State Government are not committed to doing.”
