Qld election 2020: Leaders outline their plans for state
With an election looming in unprecedented circumstances, the leaders of Queensland’s two major parties tell why their plan is best for our uncertain future. IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Future QLD
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington on why they have the best plan for Queensland’s future ahead of state election:
Qld election 2020 countdown: Party leaders make early pitches
Labor lines up against LNP over drought-busting Bradfield Scheme
Deb Frecklington tells how she’ll be a different premier
Annstacia Palaszczuk in her own words
During a global pandemic you can’t have a strong economy if you haven’t got the health response right.
Queensland has focused on the health response and we are building on that with an economic response.
I released Queensland’s Economic Recovery Plan nearly three weeks ago.
It is unashamedly about putting Queensland first.
It was put together with the help of Queensland business owners, industry groups, employers and the community including Queensland’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group, the Queensland Council of Unions, Master Builders, the LGAQ, the Tourism Industry Council, AgForce, Clubs Queensland, RACQ, Civil Contractors Association and the Queensland Conservation Council.
They said: “Why don’t you cut payroll tax?” So we did.
We cut electricity bills and government rents. We provided grants of up to $10,000 to 17,000 small business owners.
We extended the first-home owners scheme providing $15,000 to help build more houses. It’s $20,000 if the house is in the regions.
When we rebuild after a flood or cyclone we don’t replace what was there. We build back better. We’re going to make more in Queensland, right across Queensland.
Until the pandemic we imported all our surgical masks. We now have manufacturing capability here.
Tradies benefit from targeted programs like the $5000 grants we made available for seniors to maintenance jobs done around their homes.
But it also includes big projects to provide jobs for years.
We’re putting Queenslanders to work on a $50 billion pipeline of major government projects: roads, railways, schools and hospitals starting with $13.9 billion just in the next 12 months.
We have not sugar-coated the fact that the pandemic has hit us hard.
But we are focused on the health response to the pandemic and this plan will focus on our economic recovery too.
Annastacia Palaszczuk profile
Born: July 25, 1969
Education: Jamboree Heights State School, St Mary’s Catholic College Ipswich
Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws (UQ), Master of Arts (Hons) University of London, Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (ANU)
Past employment: Part-time sales assistant; Aboriginal and Island Students Service and university tutor, adviser to federal and state MPs and ministers.
Elected to seat of Inala: September 2006
Premier from: February 2015
Annastacia Palaszczuk policy pitch
● 250,000 jobs created in five years, bringing unemployment to Queensland’s lowest in eight years, prior to COVID-19.
● Delivered five budget surpluses.
● No asset sales.
● Employed an extra 2450 more doctors, 7358 more nurses and midwives, 1758 more health professionals, and 721 more ambos.
● Major upgrades to hospitals across Queensland including a new Roma hospital and a new Kingaroy hospital.
● Delivered all 140 recommendations of the Not Now, Not Ever report into DV.
● Opened 21 new schools since 2015. Another 5 are under construction with 4 more to come.
● From 2015 to 2020 invested more than $50 billion in infrastructure.
● Provided $200 off household power bills and $500 off business bills this year.
● 41-large scale renewable energy projects, representing around $7.8 billion in investment and 6500 jobs in construction and supported $20 billion in resources including major new bauxite and metallurgical coal mines
Deb Frecklington in her own words
Queensland started 2020 with the worst unemployment in the nation, the highest number of bankruptcies and the lowest economic confidence.
That dire performance was caused by years of economic mismanagement by the Palaszczuk Labor Government.
So it’s no surprise that the coronavirus crisis has hit Queensland’s economy harder than other states.
Around 234,000 Queenslanders are now unemployed and many more jobs are at risk.
Labor had no economic plan before the pandemic – and it has no plan now.
It speaks volumes that Annastacia Palaszczuk is the only leader in Australia who has cancelled their 2020-21 Budget.
Unlike Labor, the LNP has a plan to get Queensland working again.
Our plan will stimulate the economy, create a decade of secure jobs and drag our state out of recession.
Our plan for a stronger economy is based on four foundations: investing for growth, unleashing Queensland industry, supercharging the regions, and securing our children’s future.
The LNP’s job-creating infrastructure program unites all of these aims.
If elected on October 31, an LNP government will launch a $1 billion program of new road projects across southeast Queensland.
These works will tackle congestion bottlenecks, including those on the Centenary Highway, Gympie Road and Stafford Road.
An LNP Government will also immediately begin work on the second Pacific Motorway and work with the Morrison LNP Government to duplicate the Sunshine Coast rail line.
These job-creating projects will be on top of the “business as usual” works announced by Labor.
Labor is actually spending 20 per cent less on infrastructure than the LNP did and only a fraction of what Victoria and New South Wales are investing.
We have to close Labor’s infrastructure gap and stimulate the economy.
The LNP plan also includes nation-building projects like the bold New Bradfield Scheme.
The drought-busting New Bradfield will irrigate an area larger than Tasmania, generate enough hydro-electricity for 800,000 homes and create tens of thousands of jobs. The LNP will also develop six other regional dams, because water means jobs.
To drive these projects, we’ll create a new Economic Recovery Agency with the power to cut through Labor’s red tape and get shovels in the ground.
We’ll also introduce more pro-jobs policies for business, starting with our no-new-tax guarantee.
After Labor smashed our economy with nine new taxes, it’s time to give employers the confidence to create jobs again.
The LNP will cut red tape, speed up payments for small business and ensure Queensland firms are first in line for state government contracts.
We will fund our plan by ending Labor’s waste – like the $527 million blowout in IT projects or the money spent renaming the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
We’ll also ring-fence future resource royalties from the Galilee Basin into a Queensland Infrastructure Fund to pay for new roads, schools and hospitals.
I know our plan will work, because Queensland has so much economic potential.
The LNP will unlock that potential with our plan to stimulate the economy, create a decade of secure jobs and drag our state out of recession. It’s time to get Queensland working again.
Deb Frecklington profile
Born: Miles, southwest Queensland
Lives: Kingaroy with husband Jason and three daughters
Education: Guluguba State School, boarder at Ipswich Girls Grammar School
Business degree from USQ, Bachelor of Law from QUT
Past employment: co-managed broad acre cropping properties, lawyer
Member for Nanango since: 2012
Opposition Leader since: December 2017
Deb Frecklington policy pitch
* New Bradfield scheme
* Progress the Nullinga Dam, Urannah Dam, Rookwood Weir, Burdekin Falls Dam upgrade and Emu Swamp Dam
* Fixing Paradise Dam utilising international expert advice
* $1 billion southeast Queensland congestion-busting infrastructure stimulus package
* Fast-tracking approvals for duplication of M1 Gold Coast section
* Delivering four new ICE rehab centres
* No new taxes policy
* Implementing Queensland Investment Partnerships to secure $1 billion of private sector investment
* Reducing water prices for SunWater irrigators by almost 20 per cent
* Industry Skills Council to ensure vocational training is meeting skills shortages
* Fast-tracking airconditioning in every state school classroom to support local tradie jobs
* Supercharging the North-West Minerals Province
