RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...
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2344 Appropriation (<strong>Parliament</strong>) Bill; Appropriation Bill 31 Oct 2012<br />
circumstance the Minister for Local Government did. Unfortunately, this is another thing that the Premier<br />
is in complete denial about—he just cannot believe that Country has beaten City. To the Minister for<br />
Local Government, I congratulate you on your ball-handling skills.<br />
Hon. SA EMERSON (Indooroopilly—LNP) (Minister for Transport and Main Roads) (11.55 pm): I<br />
rise to make a contribution to the estimates committee report of the Transport, Housing and Local<br />
Government Committee. Before I do so and in response to those comments about that touch football<br />
game, I do note that the member for Mulgrave was on the Country side. I do concede—begrudgingly—<br />
that Country did win and therefore for the only time this year the member for Mulgrave had a win. I thank<br />
not only all members of the committee but also the committee chair for his fine efforts on the day. The<br />
estimates committee looked at this budget and, as I said on the day, this budget has been formed within<br />
the context of very challenging fiscal circumstances. However, significant achievements for <strong>Queensland</strong><br />
are contained in that budget, for example, on roads and QTRIP. Here we saw a program that finally<br />
brought some honesty to this process, because the reality is that under the previous government we<br />
saw a con job on <strong>Queensland</strong>ers—projects that were promised that the previous government knew it<br />
had no dollars for, no money for, nothing on lay-by for. In fact, it promised things knowing that it did not<br />
have one dollar to deliver some of those programs. It promised more than $300 million worth of<br />
programs as opposed to this document—a document that is an honest record of what can be achieved<br />
with dollars that are there.<br />
With regard to the Bruce Highway, it is significant of course that throughout the time of that<br />
hearing I received not one question on the Bruce Highway from the shadow minister for main roads—<br />
not one question. That is significant because we know that the Labor Party has walked away from the<br />
Bruce Highway. In fact, what he heard tonight was weasel words from the shadow minister for main<br />
roads, who now claims that the report in the Cairns Post was wrong and that he was being paraphrased.<br />
Paraphrasing basically means that they are telling him what he said, and that is the reality. What he said<br />
in that document was that state money being spent on the Bruce Highway was misspending of state<br />
money. What a disgraceful situation, because this budget put the Bruce Highway front and centre and<br />
contained details of $200 million over the next four years as the first down payment on our promise of<br />
$1 billion over the next decade on the basis that the federal government will match that 80-20, because<br />
we are committed to the Bruce Highway. Why? Because the RACQ has been very clear that we need to<br />
spend money on the Bruce Highway to avoid 300 to 400 deaths over those years.<br />
Mr Dempsey: Did he ask a question on it? Did he ask a question?<br />
Mr EMERSON: No, not one question was asked about the Bruce Highway by the member for<br />
Mulgrave. That is the reality. Not one question was asked by him during that process.<br />
Mr PITT: I rise to a point of order. Mr Deputy Speaker, he may not be saying the words but I<br />
believe that the minister is reflecting on the fact that I was not in the hearing at that time. There is a<br />
longstanding tradition that you do not refer to a member’s absence from this chamber nor in the<br />
estimates process. I ask him to withdraw that comment. I was on legitimate business in India. It is pretty<br />
hard to be in the chamber when you are in India.<br />
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Berry): Order! Honourable minister, I am not asking you to withdraw<br />
it.<br />
Mr EMERSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, thank you. There is a record budget of $1.6 billion for public<br />
transport. It was extraordinary to see the member for South Brisbane try to manipulate the numbers,<br />
because the reality was that, under the previous government they changed the rules. They changed the<br />
methodology to try to make their numbers look better but the reality was that, under Labor, the annual<br />
reports showed year after year after year after year patronage of public transport falling. It has been only<br />
in the last quarter, with LNP policies on public transport, that we have seen a rise in patronage occur.<br />
Under Labor, it was an appalling situation. <strong>Queensland</strong> was possibly the only state in Australia to see<br />
public transport patronage fall.<br />
Then we saw the omission. There is no way it can be ignored that clearly the shadow minister for<br />
transport had not bothered to read the TransLink annual report. She asked why we had not published<br />
the patronage figures for Q4. The reality was that not only had we published them but also they had<br />
been tabled in parliament. We had to point out to the shadow minister for transport that they had been<br />
tabled in parliament—page 65 of the document. We have a lazy shadow transport minister who does not<br />
even have her own questions to ask; she relies only on repeating tweets off the social networking<br />
service.<br />
Hon. BS FLEGG (Moggill—LNP) (Minister for Housing and Public Works) (12.01 am): I am<br />
delighted to make my contribution to the report of the committee. I will begin by giving my thanks and<br />
congratulations to the member for Warrego, who chaired the committee very even-handedly and very<br />
skilfully, which contributed to the performance of the committee. I would also like to thank the members,<br />
the research officers and the parliamentary staff. In particular, I would like to thank the members of my<br />
own office, my director-general and my departmental staff, who put a lot of time and effort into preparing<br />
for this estimates committee hearing.