Queensland election: LNP to slash electricity bills for manufacturers; Palaszczuk focuses on crucial Townsville seats;

Queensland manufacturing businesses will have their electricity bills cut by about 20 per cent over four years under an LNP government.

Queensland manufacturing businesses will have their electricity bills slashed by about 20 per cent over four years under an LNP government.

Visiting Watkins Steel in the safe Labor seat of Nudgee on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, deputy Tim Mander and local candidate Ryan Shaw announced the $493m election commitment would help 16,000 businesses.

Leanne Linard holds the seat in Brisbane’s north by a margin of 14.32 per cent ahead of hte October 31 state election.

Under the proposal, a $493m Community Service Obligation would be provided to government-owned corporation Energy Queensland, with Ms Frecklington assuring those 7300 associated public servants that their jobs were secure.

The CSO will remove the need to charge manufacturing businesses a rate of return on energy provided through the distribution networks.

Ms Frecklington said dragging Queensland out of recession started with super-charging the manufacturing industry.

“This is about securing the 163,000 Queenslanders right now who work in manufacturing,” she said. “But it is also about growing the manufacturing industry by 20,000 jobs.”

The LNP would pay for the half a billion-dollar commitment by growing the economy, with further details to be provided when the party releases its election commitment costings.

She defended the decision not to release the costings until the last week of the campaign, saying it was standard practice.

Meanwhile, the LNP Leader has quashed claims of jobs cuts, insisting there will be no voluntary or forced redundancies to pay for their commitments with the party to grow frontline services.

“We’ve already announced that we’re going to grow our frontline services, more teachers, more doctors, more nurses, more coppers,” she said.

“The Labor Party has already announced that this is their policy, they’ve already announced as a saving measure that they will, they are offering voluntary redundancies.

“What I can say is we won’t be offering that and will be ruling out any forced redundancies.”

Ms Frecklington hit back at claims from Treasurer Cameron Dick that the LNP’s Bruce Highway duplication plans were a “highway hoax”, saying she was excited Prime Minister Scott Morrison had backed in the proposal while they were in opposition.

The federal government has announced it would chip in $20m for the highway study.

“The Bruce Highway pledge from the Morrison government is so welcomed by the LNP team,” Ms Frecklington said.

The project would cost $33 billion over 15 years, with the LNP wanting an 80:20 federal funding arrangement.

Palaszczuk focuses on crucial Townsville seats

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has landed in Townsville, the north Queensland city that will prove critical to the October 31 state election result.

Labor holds all three of Townsville’s marginal electorates — all on slim margins less than 4.5 per cent — and could lose its entire two-seat majority here.

Townsville (Labor 0.38 per cent), Mundingburra (1.13 per cent) and Thuringowa (4.15 per cent) are all considered must-win seats for Ms Palaszczuk’s Labor to hold government.

The task is made more complicated in Mundingburra, where the Labor incumbent, Communities Minister Coralee O’Rourke, is retiring due to ill-health. The LNP is running a senior serving police officer, Glenn Doyle, in the seat, highlighting the hot-button issue of crime in Townsville.

Labor holds 48 of the parliament’s 93 electorates, with the LNP on 38. The Opposition needs a net gain of nine seats to win majority government.

As one Labor insider told The Australian: “If you think about pathways to victory, everything goes through Townsville.”

“If the government can hold one or two seats in Townsville, then it’s hard to find a pathway to government for the LNP. If Townsville is a wipe-out (for Labor) then it starts to get very messy.”

Ms Palaszczuk’s Mount Isa (Traeger, Katter’s Australian Party, 28.49 per cent) announcements also have strong links to Townsville.

She said the government had entered into an agreement with the proponents of the proposed $1.7bn CopperString 2.0 project, a high-voltage 1100km transmission line that would run between Townsville and the northwest minerals province around Mount Isa to deliver cheaper power to new mines.

The idea is the powerline would connect the burgeoning resources province with the electricity grid in Townsville.

“This is a great initiative for the north and northwest … it is visionary and nation-building,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

But it is not clear whether any financial commitment — in terms of money on the table — has been made to CopperString as part of the fresh agreement. Treasurer Cameron Dick said the government would “underwrite” the initial investment to give private investors more confidence in the scheme. The state government had previously given the company early $16m.

A statement from the government said: “Under an implementation agreement completed with the proponent CopperString last week, the government will underwrite additional multi-million-dollar development costs, including completing the environmental impact study presently underway”.

CopperString director Joseph O’Brien — a relative of key crossbencher Robbie Katter — said the agreement was a “valuable confidence boost” for minerals and clean-energy projects considering using the proposed network between Townsville and Mount Isa.

The prospective customers are Dugald River mine operator MMG, manufacturer Incitec Pivot, Glencore’s Queensland Metals, New Century Resources, and Chinova Resources.

And Ms Palaszczuk also spruiked a pre-election commitment to Glencore, which runs Mount Isa’s copper smelter and Townsville’s copper refinery, in which the government gave a “commercial in confidence” amount of taxpayers’ money to the mining giant. The funding was to pay for the four-yearly “rebricking” and maintenance work at Glencore’s smelter which was due in September next year.

Ms Palaszczuk has repeatedly refused to say how much funding would be directed to Glencore for the project.

Mount Isa mayor Danielle Slade said on Wednesday: “The Premier and her Cabinet definitely saved the day in Mount Isa”.

Annastacia Palaszczuk at the Glencore Copper Smelter in Mount Isa, Queensland, on Wednesday. Picture: Dan Peled

Mine support ‘not to butter up Katter’

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has denied her backing of the Copperstring project is a way of “buttering up” crucial crossbencher Robbie Katter in the event of a hung parliament.

Ms Palaszczuk and Treasurer Cameron Dick are in Mount Isa at the Glencore copper smelter on day two of the Queensland election campaign to announce an agreement with the $1.8bn Copperstring project, which aims to eventually deliver cheaper power for new mines in the state’s northwest minerals province.

The project has long been advocated for by local member for Traeger Robbie Katter (who holds the seat on a massive margin of 28.49 per cent), leader of the Katter’s Australian Party, who commands three of the seven votes on the current crossbench.

Ms Palaszczuk was asked whether the Copperstring backing – which will take the form of the government underwriting the process to give investors confidence in the project, without actual further taxpayer funding – was to “butter up” Mr Katter if the October 31 election ends up in a hung parliament”.

“Definitely not, this has been something that my government has championed, every single step of the way,” she said.

She said it was not a way of getting on Mr Katter’s “good side” and said she had not spoken to him about today’s announcement but “at some stage, someone will talk to him”.

“This is something we’ve been focused on for a long, long time. It’s been something that’s been raised with us by the proponents, we’ve been working with them, and as you can see, even the federal government, in its budget last night, is coming on board.”

Federal budget

LNP leader Deb Frecklington’s centrepiece election policy — a plan to expand the Bruce Highway to four lanes — is a “highway hoax,” after Tuesday night’s federal budget, according to Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick.

Queensland opposition leader Deb Frecklington. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“Deb Frecklington’s Bruce Highway plan has turned into a highway hoax,” Mr Dick said.

“The federal government promised, not $26bn, they promised $20m, which is enough to build 900m of bitumen, and so, what we heard on the radio today … we heard Tim Mander, the shadow treasurer, double down.

“He committed again on radio this morning to delivering the $33bn plan. They’ve got $20m from the federal government, to deliver a $33bn plan over 15 years. The way you do that is by using natural attrition.”

Mr Dick conceded Labor planned to cut public service costs by using natural attrition, but said this would not apply to frontline services, who would be replaced when they retired or left.

COVID-19

Queensland’s border reopening to NSW on November 1 has been thrown into doubt by a suspected new case of community transmission in the southern state.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed Queensland has zero new cases of COVID-19 overnight, and just seven still active.

Wednesday, 7 October – coronavirus cases in Queensland:

• 0 new confirmed cases
• 7 active cases
• 1,160 total confirmed cases
• 1,138,080 tests conducted

Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,148 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/stJJl7vQf4

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 6, 2020

Ms Palaszczuk said the state was still sticking to its plan to open the border to NSW only if it recorded 28 days of zero community transmission, meaning no unlinked cases.

“I haven’t heard that (about that NSW case), I’d have to get that confirmed,” she said.

“ (28 days) is the advice from Dr Young, and it’s not just the advice from Dr Young, all of the health professionals got together their proposal … was that 28 days clear of community transmission should have been a national approach, and unfortunately that didn’t go to national Cabinet.”

But she said she was disappointed with the reported handling of a brain tumour patient who had returned to Queensland from NSW and was ordered to travel in an Uber or taxi with the windows open.

“That’s very distressing, and can I say I’m not happy about the way Queensland Health has handled that. I spoke with the Health Minister and the Deputy Premier this morning, he’s going to be speaking with the paramedics, and ambulance service about ensuring that transfers can happen.

“Everyone needs to understand that this is an awful situation that people are going through, and I’d ask the health minister to address it.”

Preferences

Annastacia Palaszczuk could not confirm whether Labor would put Katter’s Australian Party and the Greens ahead of the LNP in the key marginal seats of Hinchinbrook and Maiwar.

After slamming the LNP for vowing to put Labor last across the state, insisting it was a “recipe for chaos and disaster” Ms Palaszczuk was cagey about her party’s plans.

“I don’t have that information, but let me say very clearly that One Nation will be last,” she said.