Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (9.32 pm):
Queensland cabinet’s roadshow heads to the Labor seats of Maryborough and Bundaberg next week. The spin says it is supposed to be governing from the Wide Bay. The Brisbane-centric government does not even acknowledge that Gympie is in the Wide Bay. Gympie has dropped off the map in a mountain of press releases and statements promoting the
roadshow. Even the Premier’s ministerial statement today overlooked Gympie. Ministers are welcome in Gympie, but only if they deliver instead of conducting a travelling sideshow. Just saying it does not mean you are delivering. Their track record is abysmal. Last year’s final revelation that Labor governments wasted more than half a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money on the failed Traveston Dam fiasco still has locals reeling. That is $500 million! Imagine what that could have done and delivered.
Next week ministers will fly over Gympie or spend an hour driving through my electorate. Instead
of just looking through the car window, they are welcome to come and deliver. In the last three years
only four ministers have visited and three visits were to open projects commenced under the LNP
government. The local government minister sneaked in under the radar to talk to the council. I was not
advised and there was no effort to speak to locals despite representations that stakeholders and local
groups are eager to raise issues. I have raised Gympie’s needs many times in this House and in
correspondence with ministers. Ministers have delayed projects, refused to make decisions and
redirected funds. They treat Gympie with contempt.
The training and skills minister refuses to let the USC lease an empty and unused TAFE building
so it can increase enrolments and offer more courses. Last month the Premier had the opportunity to
do something but refused. Given that only 13½ per cent of Gympie residents have a tertiary
qualification, local unemployment is 2.4 per cent above the state average and Wide Bay’s youth
unemployment has risen in the last year by 2½ per cent to 23½ per cent, it is inexcusable. It proves that
the government pays lip-service to supporting regional youth.
The health minister delayed releasing our hospital master plan by a year which then meant the
CT scanner destined for our hospital only came in May. My requests in July for an update on the
progress of local health projects remains unanswered. Three Labor budgets have equalled
reannouncements, recycling and rebadging of previous commitments. This year we not only did not
receive a crumb; money was taken away to prop up the member for Bundaberg. $1 million scheduled
for the new Rainbow Beach Auxiliary Fire and Rescue Station was redirected to the Bundaberg fire and
rescue station. Gympie and the Wide Bay urgently need specific targeted programs and incentives to
address systemic problems, not a Labor sideshow.