Address to the LNP Central Council - Rockhampton
24th March, 2013
LNP President Bruce McIver, Parliamentary Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,Can I start by acknowledging that Rockhampton and other Queensland communities have, again, been through a rough summer. Isolated and cut off again due to heavy rains on the back of cyclonic conditions.
Many Queenslanders had not properly recovered from the last floods and they were back again - for some even worse.
Memories of the isolation of flooding were sharply in Rockhampton minds over the last month.
Upgrading the Bruce Highway to flood-proof this region must be a priority.
It just needs to be done. A few months ago the government announced some money for planning work for the Yeppen flood plain road upgrade.
I say to the people of Rockhampton and those who live nearby, it has been long enough. On election to government, we will build the road.
As the Shadow Infrastructure and Transport Minister, and a Queenslander, I'll be having more to say about the Bruce Highway before the federal election.
Rest assured, for us, the Bruce Highway is a national priority and we will work with the Newman Government to give the state the arterial road it needs.
I want to assure you, my LNP colleagues are doing everything humanly possible to ensure the return of strong, stable and competent government to our country.
An essential part of that equation is making Michelle Landry the Member for Capricornia and returning Ken O'Dowd in Flynn.
We have candidates in place across Queensland who are already active in the community talking to people about their lives and their hopes for our country.
The events in Canberra this week were dramatic and confirmed what we and Australians have known for five long years... Labor is in chaos. They are a rabble not fit to govern.
Simon Crean, to his credit, saw the gridlock between the paralysing forces of the Gillard v Rudd disaster and tried to do something about it.
He's gone now.
Kevin Rudd wouldn't challenge because he doesn't have the numbers.
He says he won't do it again.
Again, it was all about Julia and Kevin. Labor MPs were, and remain, bitterly divided about the interests of the Labor Party.
What is in the best interests of Australian families and businesses was not a consideration.
Four Ministers, a parliamentary Secretary and all three government Whips went on Friday and there are three more Ministers questioning their future - all that on top of three other Ministers who quit over recent months.
Are there any adults left in the room?
But what about Wayne Swan? He has produced the four biggest budget deficits in Australian history, but promised over 200 times that this year's budget would end in surplus. Today it is shaping up to be in the order of $25 billion in the red. And who by the time of the election will have left Australia with around $300 billion in gross debt.
He still has his job.
But what about Stephen Conroy? Last week he tried to muzzle freedom of the press and his NBN announced on 4pm on Thursday, under the cover of the a leadership challenge, that their fibre optic cable will pass less than 200,000 premises by 30 June - instead of the 1.26 million he had promised? It's also $3 billion over-budget.
He still has his job.
But what about Tony Burke? He has tied the country up in green tape and has closed so many fisheries that Australia now imports 70% of the fish we eat - even though we have the third biggest and most sustainable marine territory in the world.
He still has his job.
But what about Joe Ludwig? He has been silent in standing up for Australia's farmers, while the size of his department has been halved. And he has brought northern Australian to its knees with his botched handling of the live animal trade.
He still has his job.
But what about Tanya Pliberek? She has slashed $1.6 billion from local hospital board budgets, axed the chronic dental disease program and the Coalition Government's mental health initiative - all while she employs hundred more health bureaucrats.
She still has her job.
But what about Brendan O'Connor? Brought in to fix the boat people mess, but there have been more arrivals per day under his watch than any of his predecessors - and now he wants to stop skilled migrants from coming to Australia.
He still has his job.
But what about Peter Garrett? Fresh from his pink batts fiasco, he has been brought in for Labor's third attempt at an 'education revolution' - remember the computer to every school student promise? It was $1 billion over-budget and has now been axed altogether. We've seen over-priced school halls, an unfunded Gonski report and declining education results.
He still has his job.
But what about Bill Shorten? Bowing to every union demand to create a last century industrial relations system while more than 120,000 jobs are lost in the biggest decline in Australian manufacturing in history.
He still has his job.
But what about Julia Gillard herself? She promised to fix three major policy failures of the Rudd era when she knifed the PM in 2010 - the mining tax, asylum seekers and climate change.
All three are now bigger problems than when she started.
She delivered the world's biggest carbon tax that hits families and businesses but does nothing for the environment.
We've got a mining tax that discourages investment and jobs in Australia but raises no revenue.
We've got 35,000 more asylum seekers and no end in sight to the human trafficking.
But Julia Gillard still has her job.
Labor believes the answer to every economic challenge is more taxes, more spending and more regulation.
On top of the carbon tax and the mining tax, there have been a further 25 new or increased taxes.
Labor does not have a revenue problem - it has a spending crisis.
Spending is $100 billion higher this year than in the last year of the Howard Government. As well, there are nearly 21,000 new regulations on the books since this government came to power.
It doesn't have to be like that.
In the months ahead, campaigning at railway stations, shopping centres, bus stops and community centres across Queensland, LNP members will be asked to explain how the Coalition will make life better for all Australians.
Here are some of the things we will do to help our country get ahead:
1. Abolish the carbon tax because you don't improve the environment by damaging the economy.
2. Make substantial savings in government expenditure because governments, like families and businesses, can't keep living beyond their means and because lower spending will make it possible to reduce taxes responsibly.
3. Restore border protection policies that have been proven to work - so that people come to this country the right way.
4. Reinvest in the regions and agriculture, which has been gutted under Labor.
5. Cutting $1 billion of red tape each year and introducing a one-stop shop for environmental approvals to slash green tape.
6. Scrap the mining tax because you don't improve the economy by penalising our successful industries.
7. Get big, new road projects underway, including in our major cities, like $1 billion towards the upgrade of the Gateway Motorway in Brisbane and the Toowoomba Range crossing.
8. Put local communities, not bureaucrats, in charge of our public schools and hospitals so that communities get better education and health services.
9. Restore jobs growth by creating one million new jobs over five years and two million jobs over the next decade.
You can read more in 'Our plan - Real Solutions for All Australians'.
For Australians, 2013 is a year of decision and delivery.
They will decide what direction our country takes and deliver their verdict on whether the Rudd-Gillard soap opera gets a re-run.
True to the drama and self-inflicted chaos we've come to expect, Julia Gillard galvanised people's attention on this year's election by naming the date some eight months out.
Good ole Bill Shorten was right behind her though. On 5 February while commenting on the Prime Minister announcing the election date, he told SkyNews: "The only thing unusual about that is she has leveled with the Australian people instead of playing political games".
Levelling with the Australian people would be 'unusual' indeed.
Labor is deaf to the real life issues and concerns of Australians.
By contrast, my colleagues and I have done a lot of listening over the past five years.
We haven't been shacked up in a Canberra bunker and then wheeled out for a carefully stage-managed jaunt into Western Sydney. The Prime Minister's Burke and Wills experience, all the way to Western Sydney.
Has she ever spent a whole week in Queensland or regional Australia?
We've been out there talking to real people about their real issues.
Everywhere we go people have had a gutful of Labor's ignorance, in-fighting and incompetence.
People want and deserve a stable, responsible government that puts the national interest first, not pursues every conceivable backroom deal so Julia Gillard can hang on to power a bit longer.
This election will be about the opportunity to vote for proven competence over proven incompetence.
Strong economic management over reckless spending and waste.
Consistency and credibility over spin, pandemonium and a string of broken promises.
It's about who you trust to run this country.
Who you trust to get it back on track, growing and make it stronger to give all Australians the prosperous and secure future they deserve for themselves and expect for their children.
We've done it before.
The Howard Government created 2.4 million jobs, oversaw a 21% increase in real wages and saw Australian families almost triple net household wealth.
These are the right priorities at the right time for Australia.
I look forward to working with the candidates and members of the LNP to deliver the change that our country needs.
Thank you.
[ENDS]
