Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I hear laughter from the Labor senators, and I hope that when they participate in the debate they will be able to tell me where I am wrong. Where are the jobs coming from—building windmills, building solar panels? Where else are we going to get them—digging hot rocks? Have a look at what is happening in Mackay and Townsville, which are two areas I know well. Mackay is an absolutely booming city. Townsville is doing not too bad either. Why? Because in Townsville we have three mining refineries—copper, zinc and nickel. But, if you keep taxing the mining industry, those factories will shut down. The jobs at Queensland Nickel and the copper refineries at Stuart or at Sun Metals will disappear. Where are those people going to get jobs?

You cannot trust Labor with money and you cannot trust any promise that any Labor politician might make. Ms Bligh in my home state of Queensland is, as I say, running around promising the world. She lied—and I can say this without fear of contradiction—about her only initiative in the Queensland election campaign, and that was to make up lies about Campbell Newman and to make up lies about referring to the CMC. She knew there was nothing in it. She actually admitted she had no evidence. She could not have anyone look at her record. Her total campaign has been about telling lies about a respected and honourable gentleman, Campbell Newman, the son of a former minister in this chamber, former senator Jocelyn Newman. He is a very upright and honest man. All Premier Bligh could do in her campaign was to tell lies about him.

The message I want to leave with senators in this chamber, and with any Queenslanders who might be listening to this broadcast as they drive home from a hard day's work, is that you simply cannot trust Labor with money. What is more important, you cannot trust anything a Labor leader will tell you before an election. I am delighted that Campbell Newman, in understanding the imposition on business of the payroll tax, has committed a new government, a Liberal National Party government, to reducing substantially the payroll tax burden on jobs.

My point is that before the last election Ms Gillard promised no carbon tax and she promised that there was a rock-solid guarantee to maintain the rebate on private health insurance, and what happened? Broken. Before an election a while back Ms Bligh promised that they would retain the 8c subsidy on fuel and they would not sell off Queensland Rail, and immediately they get into power what do they do? They break their word. You cannot simply believe anything that any Labor Party leader will ever tell you. I think it is important in this debate on the appropriations we all understand that mismanagement of money is Labor's hallmark.