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In our sun drenched region where households are installing solar heated water systems and solar panels in response to the horrendous price rises of this LNP government (the latest being 13%), one would think that modern technology had caught up with even the LNP. But it seems that old money have their investments in “old” technology, technologies that pollute and contribute to global warming/climate change as North Queensland goes into yet another very mild winter. The LNP have never been a party of innovation, but now that we know that this old technology is damaging our health and our environment, this is not acceptable.
Townsville Enterprise chairman (Kevin Gill) asks for more support for Sun Metals due to its “spiralling power costs”, the general public are asking for the same kind of relief and the only answer that the LNP can come up is old, dirty, and not very cost-effective technology - coal. What’s next, kerosene lamps?
I share in the frustration of many in what seems like a closed shop mentality in relation to outside input into the Townsville city plan. I doubt whether there is any proof of corruption, but we do seem to have ‘preferred developers’ in our region. We are told that Australia is open for business, but until these “agreements” are sufficiently open and transparent doubt will always linger in the minds of the public as to whether or not proper competitive processes have been followed. The case of a non-preferred developer wanting to spend $2 billion on a development and pledges of public infrastructure, springs to mind.
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Attacks on ordinary Aussie families, cuts to public health and education, the robbery of concessions to pensioners are disgraceful. This has led to LNP politicians believing they need to hire bodyguards. The anger is palpable, but all we really want to do is to vote them out.
Another old LNP project has returned to bite them on the bum. The Port Hinchinbrook and the squalid Williams Corporation development that the public has paid for many times over and looks set, under the State LNP government, to pay for again. This is all about “privatize the profit, and socialize the debt”. If we re-elect LNP governments we will surely see much more of this unfairness perpetuated for the good of the few and at the cost of the many.
In North Queensland we know we will receive very little from the Newman government’s proposed privatization of our assets with the bulk of the sale proceeds benefiting the South East.
The LNP are currently wasting more of our money on propaganda that tries to convince us to cut our own throats. Their ‘consultation’ process told them the people preferred that they raise taxes on the rich, mining barons and their ilk, rather than to sell our public infrastructure. They have completely ignored what they were told.
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The North Queensland chapter of the LNP is in a shambles, squabbling among themselves about issues as diverse as insurance to the proposed development of Northern Australia. Add to that a long term LNP NQ Senator threatening to vote against his own party and you have a collection of party office holders out of touch with their constituents.
The Abbott government’s claims of a mandate were lost as soon as Treasurer Hockey delivered the most unfair and disgraceful budget in Australian history. The farce of the “debt & deficit disaster” has been well and truly debunked. It is clear the austerity measures are not required and that the only part of the budget that needs repair is revenue. Upward of $60 billion in private profits are hidden in overseas tax havens annually. To cut $80 billion from health and education whilst leaving open taxation loopholes for unscrupulous companies is both inadvisable and immoral.
The federal LNP are ably assisted by their Queensland State counterparts in the “war against the poor”. It’s time to rid ourselves of this LNP scourge as soon as possible.