Qld Labor’s Big Build projects: Like a bad episode of Utopia
Watching Labor talking about Queensland’s Big Build is like viewing the ABC’s Utopia. Except it’s not funny. We are seeing multibillion-dollar blowouts on projects which have been talked about for 30 years. JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Opinion
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Watching Labor talking about Queensland’s Big Build is like viewing the ABC’s Utopia. Except it’s not funny.
We are seeing multibillion-dollar blowouts on projects which have been talked about for more than three decades.
Imagine how much it would have cost if the rail upgrade on the Sunshine Coast was first discussed.
The real crime show though is the sweetheart deals done with the unions which are adding massive costs to every major project done.
I thought it was bad when the Sunshine Plaza shopping centre deal was done years ago and workers were given a ‘hardship allowance’ for having to work on the Sunshine Coast.
Now we see people in very ordinary jobs commanding pay packages of more than $150k a year.
Every dollar adds to the debt my children and your grandchildren will be paying for years to come.
That debt means other vital projects like hospitals don’t get built for years. That means the costs of those projects spiral.
From memory the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, when first proposed by Peter Beattie was going to cost about $500 million. It ended up costing closer to $2 billion.
It was only built after a concerted newspaper-led campaign, which included residents marching in the street, against Labor’s planned delays.
As one reader wrote, when it comes to actually building stuff Labor is all “all wind and not much happening but tell the people and they will believe”.
They love a hard hat opportunity to announce stuff. But forgive me if I feel like I will die before I see much of it.
Scott, remarking on this publication’s comparison with the cost per minute as the Apollo Project that landed a man on the moon, nailed it when he wrote:
“That’s one small step for Mr Dick, one giant bill for Queensland-kind”.
WHAT YOU HAVE SAID ABOUT THE BIG BUILD
Kevin
Traverston dam cost hundreds of millions to build nothing, Paradise dam to be completely rebuilt at a cost of billions, Wellcamp detention centre cost of over 200 million, basically never used. The Olympic build has not started yet so can you imagine the billions flushed down the drain yet to come, the CFMEU will be telling their members they will be able to buy the holiday unit when it’s finished.
Judith
This is the Labor way. Ever increasing costs and late project delivery if ever. Usually just all talk and no do. CFMEU taxes just keep adding up. Imagine the Olympics CFMEU tax cost.
P
Labor has a big build. Queenslanders get big billed.
William
A street light in our street was damaged 10 months ago and we still don’t know when it will be fixed by Energex a Government owned sham. Good luck achieving any infrastructure project under Labor.
Frank #2
This is from the mouth of Qld Treasurer: Preliminary treasury forecasts have revealed Queensland’s net debt will quintuple to $73bn between now and 2027-28 — five times higher than the $14.6bn it is set to be by mid-2024. Total debt — which includes government-owned corporations — will rise to $188bn by 2027-28, up from $109.8bn in 2023-24.
IvanF
Question. How much of that $107b over 4 years is for pie in the sky ideological energy projects and not for real infrastructure that will benefit Queenslanders?
Daniel
Qld voters now need to ‘grow up’ and realise that what is needed from good Gov is not ‘popular’ and what is popular is not good government. We still have a chance to get things back on track but a change of leadership is the only way any meaningful change will occur. Look south to the state of Victoria if you want to know what another term of Labor will do. Make the change QLD before it’s too late.
Ross
I trust he will open his Treasurer’s report with, “Once upon a time”. But sadly we won’t all live “happy ever after” as the Labor Party debt being poured into this State has become too large to manage. Lifestyles we once knew and expected simply cannot be afforded any longer so interest payments on debt can be made. Labor has sent QLD broke. Don’t believe me then prove otherwise. Unions grow fatter while the rest of us miss out because we aren’t part of the Labor team.
BEM
It’s only money and it will be up to the LNP to find the dollars or apply the razor to projects. Then, the enfeebled Labor mob will cry foul from the opposition benches. What a shambles. How can the likes of Miles and Dick sleep at night. They are, obviously, not possessed of a skerrick of honour!
Realistic
Totally Bizarre. I bet all those are CFMEU projects where labourers get paid $150K+. Totally obscene & the LNP got a huge job getting rid of that Union stranglehold.
Oh & given those existing blowouts, considering holding the Olympics is simply moronic!
Alf
God help Queensland when this Labor circus is gone. Politicians should be held liable for wasteful spending at all times and possibility of jail time for utter waste should always be on the cards.
R
All Government projects over $100 million have to pay the CFMEU a 30% loading – outrageous. Is anyone looking at the State debt, and the annual interest payments on the debt, from the perspective of the number of taxpayers. There is no doubt that our children, and their children, will suffer due to this Government’s incompetence.
Henry Root
The notion of “Big Build” is a nonsense as it is merely the state govt doing its job of providing the state with infrastructure. the fact it is being negligently administered is the major concern.
Corrie
Surprise! Surprise! Yet another Labor project to cost billions more than initially stated. One can only wonder how many more such fiascos will come to light in October and (hopefully) the LNP is in government and get a first-hand look at Labor’s “cooked” books. Queenslanders will be footing the bill for Labor ineptitude and waste for generations to come.
Cheryl
It is unbelievable how ‘billions’ just roll of the tongues of Labor these days, State and Federal. “Just an extra few billions, nothing to worry about folks, we’ve got a plan”. The trouble with Labor is they have plans, make promises, but once they gain power those plans and promises evaporate.
Teresa
All I hear is “we have a plan”. Nothing about real action. Union bosses will decide how that plays out. Very, very expensively. If it’s anything like Labor hero, Dan Andrews’, Victorian mega spend-a-thon, it will bankrupt Qld. But wait, their solution will be the easy one, tax. Expect to be taxed to the eyeballs.
Tom
Bring the Americans or the Chinese in to do the projects. Half the cost in half the time.
Paul
The LNP is on a hiding to nothing with all these overly expensive projects locked in to keep labor’s union mates in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed for the next decade. Talk about setting landmines
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