OPINION: Gold Coast business community nervously waiting on election result as confidence hangs in balance

QUEENSLAND could have a new Labor Government by tonight — and the state’s business community is nervous.

Alice Gorman for Family Matters

QUEENSLAND could have a new Labor Government by tonight — and the state’s business community is nervous.

With good reason.

The state’s business sector is firing. Property prices are rising, clearance rates are strong, tourism is buoyant and small business has reported a return of confidence.

Ask anyone running a business about life before the LNP government won office in 2012 and they’ll tell you it was gruelling.

The GFC created a volatile operating climate, which was exacerbated by steep rises in power and water prices, the result of the Beattie/Bligh era.

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The lucky ones are still trading. Many are not.

Peter Yared, president of the Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce, says it took about a year for the Newman LNP state government leadership to take effect.

Now the Gold Coast is back to looking like the bolshie city we all know and love.

ALP leader Annastacia Palaszczuk expects to be Queensland Premier by the end of the week and Alice Gorman says the business community will be nervous.

What the city needs to ensure a buoyant future is a supportive government, not one that sees business as a cash cow to be milked dry.

All power to Annastacia Palaszczuk and her team for their election success, but let’s call it for what it was. Theirs was an accidental win.

Queensland Labor is the Steven Bradbury of politics.

There is scant information on what they plan to do and how they plan to pay for it.

And that’s why the business community is worried.

Mr Yared, who works in the tourism industry, says the biggest fear among the Gold Coast business community is that international investment in the city will stop.

“The Labor Government has pretty much said they’re not going to go ahead with the cruise ship terminal; and they haven’t put their weight behind the light rail extension,” he says.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure and investment projects that are so close to fruition and the biggest fear is that now they will stop.

“If people stop investing in this city it has major ramifications for everyone.

“They need to get in there and make these things happen, otherwise we’re going to have a very bad couple of years.”

What Labor politicians should acknowledge is that by returning LNP candidates in all eight of the city’s electorates, residents essentially said they supported the big development projects the LNP planned for the Coast.

Tourism is one of the state’s major industries and a huge area for the Gold Coast. Photo: Kit Wise

Opposition to these projects is akin to being against job creation.

On ABC radio late last week ALP Queensland State Secretary Evan Moorhead said his party would “grow jobs”.

He committed to creating 6500 new public service jobs in teaching and nursing, a move, which will appease the vocal critics of the Newman Government that controversially cut 14,000 public sector jobs.

But anyone who runs a business knows you can’t have it all. Tough times call for tough measures and while I feel for the people who lost their jobs in the public service cuts, I also say “welcome to the real world”.

In the private sector there’s no such thing as a job for life.

What we do have in Queensland are 403,000 small business operators who employ 50 per cent of private sector workers.

And 66 per cent of those small businesses operate in southeast Queensland and I bet many are nervous about what’s to come.

Will their efforts be valued and respected or will they be trashed and held to ransom by a government of idealists?

It’s not until you’ve put your own money on the line that you really respect how hard it is to be financially viable.

Sadly our likely new premier and one-third of her team haven’t had to prove themselves financially.

An article in the Australian Financial Review recently highlighted that one-third of the ALP’s new Queensland MPs were former union officials or party advisers.

Annastacia is a career adviser who worked her way through the ranks of student politics and ministerial advisory positions to finally win the seat of Inala, previously held by her father Henry.

So in the months to come as Labor formulates a plan, I hope they don’t undo all of the Newman government’s hard work.

Yes they should listen to, and have greater respect for, the voting public. Government by slogan and slick PR does not work. Ask Campbell Newman.

But the new government shouldn’t make change for the sake of change. Don’t waste money redesigning the government logo and slogan; don’t change the names of departments, necessitating an expensive change of stationary and other collateral.

Don’t cede to the influence of the faceless union bosses. Govern for the good of all Queensland.

Focus on the big issues — starting with support for the state’s key industries of tourism, resources, agriculture and construction.

Reduce red tape and let private enterprise flourish and provide the jobs that you say you want.

Since the election, Labor apparatchiks have been quick to assure us “the business community has nothing to fear from Labor”.

Now it’s time to prove that.