The forgotten victims during Labor’s reign

The Palaszczuk Government has made Saturday’s state election a referendum on how it kept Queenslanders safe during the worst global pandemic in a century. But let’s not forget the people who they haven’t protected over the past five years, writes Peter Gleeson

The Palaszczuk Government has made Saturday’s state election a referendum on how it kept Queenslanders safe during the worst global pandemic in a century.

Claiming credit for how Queensland has fared is perhaps a little ironic given that when the public pressure came from loved ones upset at inconsistent exemption and lockdown protocols, the Premier said she didn’t make the decisions.

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Nevertheless, the Labor Government is asking voters to forgive past indiscretions and gift it another four years because it followed the medical advice, which it won’t publicly reveal, that triggered border closures and harsh lockdowns.

The health result – with minimal deaths and among the best per capita contraction rate in the world – was impressive.

However, with JobKeeper ending in March next year, the full economic impact of this pandemic is yet to come.

What we do know is that Queensland’s jobless rate is the worst in Australia – a full percentage point behind Victoria which bore the brunt of Australia’s second wave.

While the Palaszczuk Government is keen to push the narrative that it safeguarded Queenslanders at their most vulnerable, just six deaths from coronavirus, let’s take a look at those people that they haven’t protected over the past five years.

In no particular order, here’s the forgotten victims:

● The 18 children who died under Child Safety’s watch through neglect since 2015;

● The hundreds of thousands of workers on the dole queue before COVID-19 hit, victims of the worst unemployment rate in the country;

● The innocent people in North Queensland terrorised nightly by rampant youth crime because of lenient bail laws;

● The unborn children aborted up to 37 weeks under new pro-choice laws enacted by this government;

● The investors in projects who have gone bust because union bullyboys are given a green light to extort an extra 30 per cent out of them on worksites;

● The 600 workers at Acland mine who are losing their jobs because of the government’s anti-coal agenda;

● The people who were not given special exemptions to quarantine at home during COVID-19, including patients recovering from brain cancer;

● The people who were denied the opportunity to go to their father’s funeral, despite coming from a city that hadn’t had a case of coronavirus in two months;

● The taxpayers who funded Labor’s multimillion-dollar “unite and recovery’’ election campaign, including polling dressed up as “sentiment’’ testing;

● The farmers who are being denied the right to manage their own land, including backburning to avert deadly bushfires, to shore up the Greens alliance;

● The innocent sports clubs in LNP electorates denied grants by a Minister, Mick de Brenni, who won a gold medal for pork-barrelling Labor seats;

● The Katter Party for being denied its status as a party and losing staff and resources after Labor decided to punish it for the views of a former rogue Senator Fraser Anning;

● Those who believe our politicians and bureaucrats should behave properly and with integrity. Cue Jackie Trad, Mark Bailey and David Barbagallo, all of whom attracted the attention – and were criticised but not pursued by – the Crime and Corruption Commission;

● Those who believe in a free and open Fourth Estate. This government wanted to stop the media’s right to investigate politicians in the six months leading up to an election, for anything, but it was quickly reversed after a major outcry;

● Those who believe in fiscal responsibility and an eye on the $100bn debt. This government has no plan to pay down debt.

There are many others but you get the drift. The Palaszczuk Government must be applauded for saving Queensland from pandemic catastrophe. But it should not be rewarded as the state’s best option to guide us through the recovery.

While COVID-19 is debilitating and deadly, political amnesia is not a side effect.

The challenge now for Queensland is to determine which major political party has the best plan to guide us through this challenging post-COVID period.

Voters need to place their faith in the party with the vision and economic dexterity that will realise Queensland’s enormous potential.

 

 

Labor has continually tied LNP leader Deb Frecklington to former premier Campbell Newman and trotted out the “sack, cuts and sell” line, a hackneyed blast from the past that they started in 2015.

Labor needs to stop looking in the rear-vision mirror. Queensland needs to embrace projects like four-laning the Bruce Highway right up to Cairns and building the Bradfield Scheme. These are nation-building projects with the potential to create thousands of jobs and provide tangible long-term transport and water benefits.

For those who value their vote, and want a Queensland that can realise its full potential, this is not a difficult choice.

Originally published as The forgotten victims during Labor’s reign