Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I first moved to Brisbane in 1988, Queensland was the powerhouse economy of Australia. At that time we boasted Expo 88, which was one of the great events of that year, and Queensland itself was one of the world's great tourist attractions. It also had one of the world's lowest power prices.

The thing I loved best about Queensland was the fact that there was very little difference in opportunity between those in the regions and those in the cities, including the city of Brisbane. What I loved the most about our capital city, Brisbane, was that it was a big country town. It didn't matter where you were from; someone always knew someone in the country. That was what was great about Brisbane. Often people would say, 'It's a big country town,' but that's the charm of Brisbane—or that was the charm of Brisbane.

Unfortunately, in the 30 years since, we've seen Brisbane turn its back on regional Queensland. We've seen the state Labor government that got into power in 1988 forget about the regions, and today our regions in Queensland have been left behind. That is a tragedy, because our cousins in the Queensland regions give Queensland its wealth, whether it's farming, mining, fishing or forestry—even our beekeepers. The state Labor government turned its back on the beekeepers. They intend to throw beekeepers out of national parks in the next term of government if they get back in. That is quite incredible when you think that, at the same time they're allowing foreign renewable wind farms into national parks, our beekeepers are being thrown out.

I want to walk through the history of what the state Labor government has done to our great state of Queensland. One of the first things they ever did was to allow poker machines into the state—into our pubs and clubs. That has basically destroyed families. It's been another form of wealth transfer from the regions back into the head offices in Brisbane. Now, since the old TAB has been taken over by Tabcorp, the money even goes out of the state. I think they're based in Melbourne; I'll be corrected on that. That was the first thing. It's amazing that we'll often hear Labor knock Sir Joh and all the rest of it, but I can tell you what: he could balance a budget and build infrastructure, and he never needed poker machines to do it. I'll criticise Wayne Goss for putting poker machines in, but he himself admitted later in his life that that was the biggest mistake he'd ever made. He admitted that the reason why he did it was that he was pandering to the unions. That really is the same old, same old with Labor. They will just pander to the unions on anything at all if it means that they're going to employ more people, get more members into their union and collect more union funds.

The other bad thing that's happened—and this is very close to my heart—is that they have shut down over 30 maternity wards in the regions. We always hear from Labor and the Greens about the treatment of women and that somehow the LNP are leaving women behind. There is no greater way to leave women behind than to shut down maternity wards in the regions. The biggest premature cause of death for women in Third World countries is childbirth, yet Queensland is heading that same way because Labor has shut down so many maternity wards. That is a legacy and a blight on the Labor Party that they really should do something about—although it's a bit late now. But I'm pleased to say that the state LNP has committed to bringing back birthing services to my home town of Chinchilla and to Theodore, and, hopefully, there'll be many more. Just to give you an idea, Bowen, a town of 10,000 people, doesn't have a maternity ward.

It doesn't end there. It's the tree clearing laws that crack down on farmers, the reef regulations that crack down on farmers and the closure of agricultural colleges—another crackdown on farmers. It's the collapse in infrastructure spending. Not only can state Labor not even build infrastructure; they are pulling the infrastructure down. They are lowering the wall at Paradise Dam, which is going to have a devastating impact on Bundaberg, one of North Queensland's fastest-growing regions. So it doesn't matter which way you turn: Labor does not help the regions. When you vote on 31 October make sure you vote for the LNP, because we will back the regions and get Queensland working again.