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.