Opinion: Voters’ choice – the HiLux or the untested mystery model

We’re told the unknown vehicle will cost half what the HiLux does, will save the planet, be thief-proof, cure crime, deliver housing and alleviate poverty, writes Robert Schwarten.

I am a failed target shooter, so I can advise with certainty that the problem with small targets is that they are hard to shoot down. Opposition Leader Crisafulli is banking on this, and the polls tell us he will probably be the winner.

But Queenslanders voting in October should reflect on the warning from every consumer affairs minister since Judy Spence two decades ago: “If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.”

Now imagine this: under one sheet we have what appears to be some sort of a vehicle. Under the other is a Toyota HiLux.

The spruiker tells us that the unknown vehicle will cost half what the HiLux does, will save the planet, be thief-proof, cure crime, deliver housing, and alleviate poverty. The catch is you cannot test-drive it or even see it in action before you purchase. That is the choice facing Queensland voters.

But buyer beware. Mr Crisafulli is slippery on most issues, most notably those that annoy his religious right-wing backers in his partyroom (think voluntary assisted dying and abortion) or his rich corporate backers (he said he would campaign against the tax cuts that included the low-paid rather than just the better-off, but we have heard nothing since).

One minute Mr Crisafulli likes renewables, the next he’s prattling on about coal. He froths at the mouth over ambulance ramping, health data, police numbers, teacher shortages and so on. But he has not provided one costed and detailed policy on how he would address any of it.

I could fill a tome with more examples. but suffice to say that slick sales tricks often turned out to be sophisticated scams.

Are Queenslanders so tired of Labor governments that they will risk a return to the Campbell Newman experiment, which got across the line with a similar lack of transparency? Only time will tell.

But this time it will be for four years, not the less-than-three cuts and chaos of a government that promised the moon and stars and delivered a snow dome.

Premier Steven Miles has had the guts to be out there on every issue that matters, slugging away at the issues that are confronting all governments. For his efforts, he has been criticised at every turn.

Mr Crisafulli owes voters a detailed plan that at least gives us some idea on his plan to deliver all the things he whinges about this government not doing. Otherwise my advice would be to take the advice of the the road warning sign and approach with caution.

Robert Schwarten is a former Labor government minister

Originally published as Opinion: Voters’ choice – the HiLux or the untested mystery model