The battle to end an ideologically-driven closure of gun shops in regional Queensland may be about to claim victory, judging by the last-minute “conversion” of Labor’s Maryborough MP, Bruce Saunders.
Mr Saunders, who has previously expressed his hatred of guns, has come out saying gun shops should be allowed to open. Such a conversion would usually indicates the Labor Party is about to back down and the MP wants to get out on the front foot to convince his constituents he was working for them all along.
I circulated a petition to have restrictions lifted but this is the first sign of support he had seen from the Labor MP. I don’t recall seeing Mr Saunders taking a stand or petitioning against his own government’s knee-jerk regulations. I don’t recall him rushing in to sign the petition.
This last-minute conversion is either an indication of an imminent backflip or he is trying to pull the wool over regional Queenslanders’ eyes. Central Queenslanders know the Labor Party hates guns and they hate the people who use them. They also know that the Labor Party has no regard for the needs of farmers or anyone else living outside the south-east corner so they won’t be fooled as easily as Mr Saunders believes.
Posts
The Queensland Labor government’s attempt to buy airline jobs with taxpayer-funded debt is proof they missed their own brief. We don’t elect a government to take our money and buy jobs. Governments don’t create real jobs, and they certainly shouldn’t buy them. It’s the government’s job to create an environment that enables businesses to create those real jobs.
If the Queensland Labor government wants to keep Virgin operating and keep their head office in Queensland, they should look at how their own government treats businesses. Labor needs to ask themselves (or, better still, ask Virgin management) why an airline would want to go to the trouble and expense of moving their head office to another state. Fixing those issues should be their priority.
Given Labor’s record of sending the State into debt, the last thing they should be doing is spending more borrowed money to buy an airline that is already losing money. Aviation analyst Neil Hansford earlier this week said the winning bid to buy Virgin would have to have strong aviation experience and a willingness to lose money in the short-term”. There’s no question that Labor is willing to lose money. They are experts in that field. The problem is that it’s not their money and the people of Queensland are not willing to see their money and their future thrown down the gurgler.