Opinion: Palaszczuk Government will cost Bill Shorten upcoming federal election over Adani mine
AS the federal polls narrow, ostensibly over Labor’s failed border protection policy, expect the State Government to come under tremendous pressure from Shorten to approve the Adani mine, writes Peter Gleeson
Opinion
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THE Palaszczuk Government will cost Bill Shorten the upcoming federal election over its stance on the Adani Carmichael coal mine.
As the federal polls narrow, ostensibly over Labor’s failed border protection policy, expect the State Government to come under tremendous pressure from Shorten to approve the mine.
After his spectacular own goal over asylum seekers, Shorten now knows that the Australian public see being led around by the Greens as electoral poison. Even the powerful CFMMEU wants Adani to proceed, foreshadowing ballot box brutality against Labor if it knocks it back.
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Thinking voters in Queensland will abandon the Labor Party in droves if the State Government rejects Adani because of the black-throated finch.
Labor’s ideological imbroglio over Adani exposes a much deeper fiscal malaise for Queensland. Get ready for the perfect storm – a black one at that – if voters give the keys to the kingdom to the Labor Party at both a federal and state level in Queensland.
Popular progressive policies around asylum seekers, changing the date of Australia Day, getting more women into parliament and the daddy of them all, climate change and the push for 45 per cent renewables by 2030, are merely the entree.
The main course for Labor’s true believers at the federal level is what it can do while in charge of the purse strings, known as the Treasury. We’re getting a taste of it right now in Queensland. Treasurer Jackie Trad doesn’t want the Adani Carmichael coal mine to go ahead in central Queensland, despite its potential to create thousands of jobs. So through Cabinet – which her faction, the Left, runs – Trad has orchestrated an elaborate “fix’’ by commissioning a last-minute review of Adani’s black-throated finch management plan.
This is a plan that has already received the green light from the Department of Environment. Adani has jumped through more than 100 environmental and legal hoops over the past nine years. The problem with this 11th-hour review is that it has been chaired by Brendan Wintle, a Melbourne academic associated with anti-coal activism. Wintle has repeatedly rejected Adani’s criticisms that he lack impartiality.
The mine cannot proceed until the State Government approves it. We also know that in that same environment department as a senior aide is Tim Seelig, principal adviser to the Director-General. Seelig is a former CEO of the Queensland Conservation Council and the Wilderness Society, and has been active in opposing Adani for some years.
As you’d expect, the Wintle report recommends the project not proceed. When some people, including the Minerals Council, suggested the Palaszczuk Government was playing politics, Trad said it was Adani which was politicising the issue.
Pot. Kettle. Seriously? This is the biggest sting in Queensland since Fine Cotton. The Labor Government is a captive of the Left and the Greens. It knows the Adani project is the totemic cause for the climate change warriors, and it would rather appease them than create much-needed jobs for Queensland.
Trad’s electorate is West End, the purple-dyed hair capital of Australia where Greens voters literally grow on trees.
But it gets worse. Much worse. When Bill Shorten becomes prime minister, expect a $300 billion taxation gouge, targeting self-funded retirees, property investors and anybody who earns a reasonable salary. The franking credits clawback will cost self-funded retirees – and Queensland has more of these people than any other state – an average of between $5000-$9000. These are people who don’t claim a pension because they’ve put money away for their retirement. Forget that family holiday, the annual golf club fees or Christmas presents for the grandchildren. Bill Shorten’s “fair go’’ for hardworking Aussies. Nice.
Then there’s the abolition of negative gearing, meaning investment properties as an alternative to the share market is not an option for people who once again don’t burden the welfare system. And, of course, the doubling of the capital gains tax is a big disincentive for people to buy investment property.
There’s more. There’s the move to increase the top tax rate to 49 per cent by bringing back the 2 per cent deficit repair levy, a big new tax on family trusts, and all while the corporate tax rate stays at 30 per cent, making Australia one of the most unattractive places on Earth for foreign investment.
Which brings me back to Adani. Why would any Indian or Chinese company invest in Queensland after the treatment that has been served up to Adani? The irony is that Queensland has one of the worst performing economies in the country under Trad. According to latest economic data, we sit at No.6, behind even South Australia, which struggles to keep its lights on because of crazy renewable targets.
The irony of all this is that Trad relies on the mining industry to provide $5.2 billion a year in royalties, most of which Labor uses to hire more public servants, who then join a union and the union siphons off funds to help Labor get re-elected. A Ponzi scheme.
All while the debt climbs every day, now reaching $80 billion, the worst in the country.
It was former British PM Margaret Thatcher who said the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
Buckle up, Queensland. If Shorten is elected, it’s going to get very rocky indeed.
UPGRADE NOT SOON ENOUGH
IF EVER proof was needed that Brisbane needs a new, state-of-the-art entertainment centre in the heart of the city, it was revealed in recent ticket sales for Elton John’s final tour later in the year.
When tickets went on sale for the great British entertainer’s final tour, they sold out quickly throughout the country, but none more so than in Brisbane, which recorded sales beyond Sydney with its 17,000-seat ICC theatre at Darling Harbour. Brisbane punters travel to Boondall, 18km north of the CBD, to see major acts at a stadium with a capacity of 13,500. It’s not ideal.
AEG Ogden chief Harvey Lister’s Brisbane Live plan for a 17,000 seat stadium at the Roma St railyards sits within the Cross River Rail, a $5 billion project set to transform public transport in the state’s capital.
The CBD entertainment centre is seen as pivotal to the rejuvenation of Brisbane on the back of Queen’s Wharf, a second airport runway, new cruise-ship terminal, and a possible bid for the 2032 or 2036 Olympic Games.
AEG Ogden will co-ordinate the build and manage the new entertainment centre. As well as BEC, it runs Suncorp Stadium and the convention centre at South Bank.
Meanwhile, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has a few headaches at the moment. There are rumblings at City Hall over the Brisbane Metro project and the length of the buses. The proposed buses will be the longest in the world, and there are fears they may not be user-friendly on some roads. While the Mt Coot-tha zipline is a sleeper issue at the next election, and the upgrade of Kingsford Smith Drive is causing massive delays for motorists and it’s now not expected to be finished until 2021.
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UNEASE AS CURRIE’S HORSES HIT THE TRACK
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WELL-known Brisbane-Gold Coast restaurateur Simon Gloftis (left) was in Los Angeles minding his own business at a swanky hotel when he was invited to a Grammys after-party. Gloftis had a lovely evening and at one stage had a chat to singer Katy Perry. A long way from his teenage days as a course ranger at Paradise Springs Golf Club.
WEED KILLING
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