Like his Federal leader Tony Abbott, Campbell Newman will say anything to mislead Queenslanders to try and get himself elected – and again today we’ve seen this negative and dishonest conduct on display.
When it comes to the Bruce Highway, Mr Newman is all spin and no new money.
FEDERAL FUNDINGThe current Federal Labor Government has already significantly increased spending on the Bruce Highway to a record $2.8 billion over 7 years, whereas the former Howard Government only spent $1.2 billion over 12 years.
Put simply, we’re investing more than twice as much in about half the time. Even members of Mr Newman’s own party have acknowledged things have got much better under Labor. According to the Federal LNP member for the Townsville-based electorate of Herbert, Ewen Jones:
“I’ll give Labor a pat on the back and say they have spent more in their four or five years on the Bruce Highway than we did before.”
TOWNSVILLE BULLETIN – 5 MARCH 2011
Ironically, one of the people introducing Mr Newman at today’s LNP campaign launch – Warren Truss – was a Transport Minister in the former Howard Government and had years to do something about fixing the Bruce Highway but instead chose to do nothing.
TOLLINGI would urge Mr Newman to pick up a copy of the Australian Constitution and have a read of it. He will soon discover that under our constitutional arrangements, only state governments have the power to impose tolls on roads within their jurisdictions, including national highways such as the Bruce.
Either Mr Newman is ignorant of how our system of government works or he’s seeking to deliberately mislead Queenslanders. I would suggest it is probably the later.
Unlike LNP politicians who only show an interest in the Bruce Highway when they are in opposition but quickly ignore it when they get into government, Federal and State Labor have long recognised the importance of investing in it.