Palaszczuk deflects attention from hidden blowout to federal cuts

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has refused to reveal when she knew the cost of a rail project had doubled, instead again targeting the federal government over cuts.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Transport Minister Mark Bailey

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has refused to reveal when she knew the cost of the Gold Coast Faster Rail project had doubled to $5.2bn, but instead dialled up the heat on the federal government over its infrastructure cuts.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey was forced to reveal last week the cost of duplicating the rail Kuraby and Beenleigh had increased from $2.6bn to about $5.2bn – raising questions why the doubling had not been revealed to Queenslanders.

Ms Palaszczuk on Sunday refused to say when she found out about the staggering price blowout, declaring Mr Bailey was right to privately negotiate with the federal government for extra support before making any announcement.

“It’s not about when people find out, it’s about – as Mark Bailey the minister has said – negotiations happen with the federal government and once those negotiations are finalised then is put out to the public,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk also continued her criticism of the “outrageous” funding cut by the federal government and challenged the infrastructure minister to visit the state.

“My message is to the Victorian minister Catherine King, the federal Victorian minister who doesn’t understand Queensland, come up to Queensland have a look have a discussion with us and fund Queensland infrastructure projects,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“She might be thinking, oh, why is Queensland doing this?

“We’ll tell you why we’re doing this because we are standing up for Queenslanders, this is the fastest growing state and we need the infrastructure and we need it to live.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie accused Ms Palaszczuk of “manufactured outrage” for her criticism of Labor in Canberra.

With the federal government pumping an extra $1.7bn into existing Queensland projects, Mr Bleijie called for the state to reveal by how much the costs had increased.

“It’s Queenslanders’ taxpayers money, Queenslanders deserve to know how much these blowouts are costing them,” she said.

Queensland senator Murray Watt reignited the feud with an opinion piece in The Sunday Mail, declaring the government had to make hard decisions about some projects in every state.

“In these inflationary times, a responsible government can’t fund everything,” he said.

“With Queenslanders facing cost-of-living pressures, the worst thing we could do right now is to throw fuel on the fire.

“Continuing to throw precious taxpayers’ funds around like drunken sailors would just drive inflation up and risk higher interest rates for Queensland households.”