Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Nor did Premier Beattie tell the committee that Kessels Road, which is right outside the QE2 sport stadium in the middle of my electorate, is overladen with heavy trucks 24/7 because of the failure of the Beattie administration—and, indeed, the failure of the Goss administration, with the Leader of the Opposition as his core adviser—to put the proper infrastructure into place in time to make sure that we are able to properly cope with transport needs. Premier Beattie also did not tell the committee that Brisbane would not be able to guarantee its power supply because electricity cannot be generated without a reliable source of water.

The point of the matter is this: the Labor Party can be embarrassed all they like about the role of the Leader of the Opposition in the failure of Queensland infrastructure over his time. But, of course, the shadow Treasurer, the member for Lilley, is equally complicit in the sorts of failures we have. Heaven help us if either of those two gentlemen ends up taking on any authority in a national sense. We do not have power, we do not have water, we do not have adequate roads and we do not have adequate rail lines—all because of Labor’s failure to properly administer Queensland’s asset needs for years to come.

We do not have enough people to actually make a remedy possible. I had a Queensland government minister tell me last year that we need a 32 per cent increase in the number of people with the capacity to be plant operators and bulldozer operators. They are probably over in the electorate of the member for Kalgoorlie making a fortune pushing dirt around or in the Central Queensland coalmines. The reality is that all that the Beattie government does is spin. It would make Marie Antoinette blush with this ‘let them eat cake’ approach, bidding for world athletics championships at a time when average Queenslanders cannot get enough power, water or adequate roads. Peter Beattie stands condemned. (Time expired)

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