Scott Morrison’s pledges roads, rail, tax breaks and jobs for Queensland

Prime Minister Scott Morrison got the unofficial election campaign underway in Brisbane, granting extended tax breaks to small business and pledging to ease congestion on Queensland’s road and rail systems.

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison put the economy centre stage as the unofficial election campaign got underway in Brisbane yesterday, granting extended tax breaks to small business and pledging to ease congestion on Queensland’s road and rail systems.

Mr Morrison, who addressed a crowd of LNP faithful at the Brothers Rugby Union Club in Albion, concentrated heavily on the Coalition’s economic credentials in his speech, boasting of a return to surplus in the April budget.

“We have been the most responsible Government, when it comes to spending restraint, in the past 50 years,’’ Mr Morrison said.

A strong economy was as real as “the air you breath and the water you drink,’’ he said.

“It is as real as the schools your children go to or the hospitals where lifesaving procedures are performed,’” Mr Morrison said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison talks to the LNP faithful at Brothers Rugby Union Club in Brisbane. Picture: Annette Dew

The Prime Minister used his speech to announce an increase in the small business tax write-off threshold from $20,000 to $25,000, allowing small business with an annual turnover of less than $10 million to deduct the cost of assets such as cars and equipment for an extra year, until the end of the 2019/20 Financial Year.

A Coalition Government would also allocate a further $244 million to stop congestion on Queensland road and rail.

Funding will be directed to several projects including the intersection of Commercial Road and Doggett Street in Newstead, the Gympie Arterial Road, the Ipswich Motorway and Mt Lindesay Highway corridors as well as park and ride facilities at the Mango Hill and Ferny Grove train stations.

Mr Morrison attempted to paint Labor as a potentially irresponsible government while lauding the achievements of the Coalition over the past five years.

Mr Morrison said the promise by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to create one million jobs had been more than fulfilled, with the Government actually creating 1.2 million jobs.

He told the large crowd that not only would a Coalition Government deliver a surplus in the coming April budget.

He intended creating a further 1.25 million jobs in the next five years, and then building on that to secure a total of two and a half million new jobs by 2030.

The PM said only about one half of voters who cast a vote in the coming Federal Election would have experienced a recession.

“And I don’t want them to learn how important a strong economy is by enduring one (a recession),’’ he said.

Mr Morrison said Labor, if it won power under Bill Shorten, would deliver a weaker economy, “held back by higher taxes, dragged down by militant unions.”