Campbell Newman hits the Gold Coast on first full day of Queensland election campaign
THE Gold Coast was first cab off the rank for Premier Campbell Newman when he hit the election trail today. See what he had to say.
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PREMIER Campbell Newman hit the Gold Coast on the first full day of the 2015 election campaign today hinting he’d make a decision about the light rail extension within weeks and saying not having daylight savings was a ‘real pain’.
Speaking on GoldFM at 8.30am, Mr Newman said he was not in a position to make an announcement on connecting the light rail to heavy rail today but from Sunday, he pledged he would make his policy clear during the snap campaign.
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“To make light rail really effective, I firmly believe it needs to be linked to the heavy rail,” he told GoldFM radio.
“From Sunday I will be making policy announcements and talking about light rail — it is an important one.”
Any hope of more clarity on the future of the cruise ship terminal was dashed when Mr Newman appeared to distance himself from the project by saying it was Mayor Tom Tate’s project and the State Government was simply providing the framework to pursue it.
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“The cruise ship terminal, that’s more difficult and tricky,” he said when asked if he would make a policy announcement on it.
“It has got to go through due process ... it’s got to stack up.
“I understand there are people who are concerned about environmental issues and issues of public space.
“I want to make it clear that this is a project that the Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate wanted and the Mayor made an election promise.
“We need to see it stack up as a real cruise ship terminal with real benefits and I want to see the jobs created because it is the big issue for Queensland. The cruise ship is an opportunity.”
. @theqldpremier arrives for a radio interview on the Gold Coast. On GoldFM #qldvotes qldpol #qldvotes pic.twitter.com/dYm1SH4R4k
— The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) January 6, 2015But he has ruled out introducing daylight savings if re-elected.
“I’m pretty confident there is no political party that’s going to be putting daylight savings on the table in this election, he said.
“All major parties realise that if you look at the whole of the state I’m afraid collectively people don’t want it.
“It’s terrible ... it’s a real pain, but I made a commitment a long time ago that we wouldn’t bring it in.
“If you go to Longreach or Cairns at this time of year and say we are going to work to daylight savings, it isn’t a pretty picture.”
Premier Newman said he would continue his stand against organised crime if re-elected.
“During the campaign we will be talking about the next phase we can do to improve the Queensland Police Service’s ability to deal with crime,” he said,
“One of the big successes of this government in the last 18 months is the fact that we have taken a stand against these criminal gangs.
“We had the riot here on the Gold Coast at Broadbeach not far from where were are now.
“Since that time we took a stand with the strong laws that have been upheld by the High Court
“Crime across Queensland has dropped significantly since the laws were implemented.
“Assault, armed robberies, break and enters and car thefts are typically down by 20 to 25 per cent.
“That is not happening anywhere else in Australia.”
After his morning chat on air Premier Newman headed down to Alto Cucina and Bar at Broadbeach for a coffee and a chat with locals.
He has flanked by Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney and local MPs John-Paul Langbroek, Verity Barton and Michael Hart.
Mr Newman sat with a young family, whose names he already knew, and spoke about the good things his government had done since 2012.
Other bemused cafe patrons took photos on their phones which went straight to Facebook.
Premier Newman will be on the Coast for the rest of the day, campaigning and visiting locals.
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