LOCAL shows are in danger of permanently disappearing without properly targeted support. I have asked Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to match Federal Government support for show societies but to target the support in a way that will bring shows back into regional Queensland. The Federal Government has committed $36 million to support agricultural show societies’ recovery from pandemic-enforced shutdowns.
We want to see an equivalent commitment from the State Government because these shows are an integral part of our regional communities and we can’t afford to lose annual ritual. But it can’t be just a matter of committing funds. The money needs to be targeted in a way that will get results.
After consulting with stakeholders, it became clear that a more targeted approach would be necessary before shows could be held. Keeping the local entities alive to look after the grounds and stage the show is just part of the equation. Even if showgrounds were allowed to host such events later this year, there probably wouldn’t be any shows as we know them. The rides, sideshow alley, food vendors, showbags, and all the stalls that we normally associate with a visit to the show are unlikely to be in a position to simply restart their life. Many members of the Showmen’s Guild and the travellers that follow the show circuit have slipped the gaps of government support and have been financially crippled by the pandemic that shut down their business.
I put a proposal to the Queensland Government this week to target their matched funding to getting the show circuit moving again. I have asked the Premier to consider underwriting the restart of the show circuit because these travelling businesses are a vital part of the show and they simply don’t have the means to get their businesses up and running again. Once they get moving on the circuit again, they will be generating turnover, rebuilding their business and boosting regional economies as well as boosting spirits. While it is likely numbers will initially be down on show attendances prior to the pandemic but we can’t afford to have communities get used to not having a show.
It would be a terrible loss of tradition and social cohesiveness. Everyone in the great State of Queensland has a connection to ‘the show’ and the smaller the community’s population, the stronger that connection will be. I think restoring the ‘local show’ for people that have been through so much will be a welcome relief and a return to normal life. In addition, the local shows have always been a great contributor to the regional economies and we are in desperate need of getting our wealth-producing regions booming again.
The General Manager of the Queensland Chamber of Agricultural Societies, Trevor Beckingham, has called on Members of Parliament to push for funding from the State Government. I’m happy to do that but I also want to make sure we get the right outcomes. It would be a terrible shame if taxpayer money was spent to keep the shows running and we didn’t get that outcome. I understand some of the businesses that travel the show circuit have invested enormous sums of money in stock that they now have to pay to keep in storage. The feedback I am receiving is that even if shows were scheduled for later in the year, those key elements of the show could not afford to attend.
The combination of funds to the local venues (from the Federal Government) and funds for the travelers (from the State Government) will help compensate for what will no doubt be lower-than-normal numbers at local shows when they are able to return.
BOTH sides of politics are blaming farmers for perceived damage to the reef in a bid to win over metropolitan votes. While Queensland Labor is being blamed for spending taxpayer money to demonise farmers through the Reef 2050 Water Quality program, the attacks are being funding by the LNP at the Federal level. Both parties and both governments should hang their heads in shame for the way they are treating farmers and I call on them both to withdraw taxpayer funding from the program and use it to support industries that keep taxpayers employed.
These political parties can’t just place all the blame on farmers without considering the impact our urban population has on water quality. I would go up the Pioneer River, where the fresh is, and drink water out of the river any day but I don’t think the Premier (Annastacia Palaszczuk) would do the same in the Brisbane River any time soon.
The Pioneer River is surrounded by sugar cane farms from top to bottom but Mackay still has the second best drinking water in the world. For the Reef 2050 funds to be spent on demonising farmers and driving them out of business instead of actually making a difference on the reef is a travesty. The LNP in Queensland likes to pretend they are the friend of the farmers but they never let on that their Federal counterparts are funding this lunacy.
I wrote to the Prime Minister about this issue and asked for taxpayer funds to be withdrawn from the program. The Prime Minister, in his reply, pointed out some of the positive support being offered to farmers to voluntarily change their practices, but he doesn’t’ mention what happens with the millions of dollars in untied funding gifted to the water quality program. The truth is the whole program, including the disastrous measures being implemented by the State, are funded by both the major parties.
KickStart – Reef 2050
Both major parties suffer from branch stacking and it’s always the innocent electors suffer from it. In events across the nation this week, both major parties were involved in controversies over their party machines.
In Victoria, the ALP Premier Dan Andrews sacked one minister over “industrial scale” branch stacking. Another two ministers resigned in disgrace, and the State branch of the ALP had to be taken over by its federal executive. In NSW, one ALP member of State parliament has resigned, also over branch stacking.
In Queensland, a 2010 scandal over branch stacking led to one ALP Member being sacked, and others reprimanded. One member involved later became principal advisor to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and is now a highly-paid consultant to her.
And the LNP is mired in controversy over its backroom State President’s involvement in trying to oust Parliamentary Leader Deb Frecklington, while employed by Palmer United Australia Party leader, Clive Palmer.
When an unrepresentative rump of power-hungry manipulators sideline their parties into doing things, it takes all power away from the people and concentrates that power into the hands of a couple of elitists with the right connections.
That is far from democracy and the more Australia’s major parties enable and tolerate such behaviour, the further we drift away from being a democratic country.
In the past three months, whole industries have stalled, people have lost jobs and the State has been plunged further into debt. In those past months, I have outlined a KickStart Queensland strategy that maps out a path back to prosperity.
The Recovery Government (the government that leads Queensland through the economic recovery) must get out of the way and let Queensland shine like it used to. Environmental safeguards are important but the default position needs to change from asking “how do we stop this?” to asking “how do we make this happen?”
The government needs to stop paying external consultants to the government’s job and apply some accountability and transparency to the NGOs that suck up more taxpayer dollars than the parliamentary library is able to count. A Recovery Government will quit wasting millions of dollars on photo opportunities like a 2032 Olympics bid and redirect support to industry and local manufacturing to boost the economy now and keep jobs in Queensland.
Both the Labor Party and the LNP need to withdraw the billion-plus dollars they are throwing at dodgy reef science to point the finger at farmers and actually back those farmers to produce better outcomes for the reef, for farming communities, and the State’s economy. And if the next government doesn’t repeal the vegetation laws (because we know this one won’t), the entire agriculture sector will be decimated as farmers simply walk away.
Queensland will flourish when their government focuses on their interests instead of funding and pandering to political correctness, China, the United Nations, UNESCO, and the other unelected globalist influences. Allowing foreign entities (especially the Chinese Communist Party) to buy land, water, and agribusiness without expanding and creating industries is not foreign investment. It is a foreign purchase and we would do well to ban all foreign purchases.
Until Queensland has a government committed to building dams and infrastructure to deliver affordable and reliable water and energy, industry and prosperity will continue to spiral. Our economy can’t move forward if our biggest industries are going backwards.
The Mount Morgan Mine was instrumental in Australia’s financial foundation. The current government has invested millions into an evaporation method of cleaning up an environmental problem left by the early mine. But this has not reduced the poison oozing from the mine – just concentrated it for release at the next weather event. If the government was truly committed to the environment it would stump up half of the $500m outlined by the CQU to assist Heritage Mining in rehabilitating this site and creating jobs.
Fast-tracking Central Queensland coal mines is the quickest and easiest way for Australia to fight its way out of the recession. The Federal Government conceded last week that Australia had entered its first recession in 29 years, on the back of a summer of bushfires and the pandemic shutdown.
There’s only one way to create large-scale employment in this recession, and that’s to open up big new coal mines at the double. We need development on steroids, and that means immediately approving those six stalled mine applications in the Galilee Basin.
It also means annihilating all those bogus bureaucratic barriers that have delayed approvals by as much as eight years. Any left-wing activists who stand in the way of these thousands of jobs must be shown to be boulders in the road to economic progress.
Official Gross Domestic Product figures released last week show that Australia’s Economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in the March Quarter. GDP is the total value of all goods and services Australia produces. Queenslanders don’t need to hear the official figures to know that the country is in recession. We already have locally some of the highest employment in Australia. Bushfires, drought and COVID-19 were the main causes, other than mine layoffs over recent years. But some export mineral prices are right at the top of the cycle. Failure to act now to open up these mines would be economic betrayal.
There are two key parts to the economy: export and domestic. One Nation is already taking the State Government to the High Court, to open up borders with the rest of Australia. And that will take care of the domestic part of our economy – however late. Opening up mines will take care of exports. Pauline Hanson seems to be the only leader in Australia with a handle on what local developments mean to jobs.
Mount Morgan residents face a long wait before the Burnett Highway fully reopens. The highway at the entrance to Mount Morgan has been partially closed since heavy rain caused a rockslide in March this year, leading to long delays and plenty of frustration. It’s incredibly disappointing it has already been two months without anything happening to fix the problem. If this was a partial closure of George Street in Brisbane, it would have been fixed long ago.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads has at least confirmed a survey and detailed design for the repair work has now been completed. The department is now looking for a contractor to carry out the works, which is encouraging. However, while construction work will commence by July, it is not expected to be completed until late this year.
I have previously written to the Minister requesting an urgent fix for this problem, given the impact on locals and local industry. This is a key highway for a number of industries and the extended time delays is a major inconvenience for locals making trips into Rockhampton.
The boulder (about the size of a small car) that came to rest beside the road has been removed and technical experts have inspected the site. As a result of the inspection, the department imposed a single lane restriction with a reduced speed limit. At this stage, those restrictions will remain in place until the work is completed. TMR has rejected a proposed widening of the highway at the site to allow two-way traffic on the basis of cost and the time it would take to build.
I continue to advocate for urgency on a full opening of the highway. It’s not just slowing down trucks and buses going about their business but it’s slowing down everyday life and worker commutes. Workers are finding themselves sitting in the dark early in the morning, with no traffic around, waiting for a traffic light to change.