A division of the Liberal Party of Australia
Address to Cairns Community
21 February, 2009
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Thank you Warren Entsch for that very kind introduction. It’s good to hear Warren again and to see first hand his commitment to the Far North Queensland region. I can tell you all that he is sadly missed in Canberra and his successor is regrettably neither heard nor taken seriously in the corridors of power.
I certainly hope that Warren will one day be able to resume a role in public life supporting Far North Queensland.
Ladies and Gentlemen before I commence I do just want to pause briefly to reflect on Fay Westaway, a stalwart of the Liberal Party in the Far North who passed away a couple of days ago. I know Warren has mentioned this at the beginning of the function, but I did just want to recognise the very significant contribution both Fay and her husband Hal have made to the progress of non-Labor politics in the Far North Queensland region.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s when it wasn’t too fashionable to be involved in the Liberal Party, they reinvigorated and grew the brand name to an extent where we did at one stage have a State and Federal Member in the Parliaments.
I know all here would join me in expressing our condolences to Hal and family on Fay’s passing.
Ladies and Gentlemen I wanted to start tonight by referring to three quotations I have on my Facebook page.
The first is a quote from Edmund Burke
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
Secondly John F Kennedy said
It’s not what your country can do for you; it’s what you can do for your country
And thirdly is a quotation
A friend is one who knows all about you – but likes you just the same
And I wanted to mention those three quotations because I want to dwell briefly on what they all mean.
I did however also want to let you all know, particularly the younger ones amongst you, that I am one of the ‘with it’ generation who deal in Facebook!
When good men and women stand back and do nothing, evil in the form of poor governance and poor decision making, will triumph. In Queensland we have what is arguably the worst State Government in Australia - and that is saying something when you put New South Wales into the mix – it is just a basket case and full of corruption.
I heard yesterday at a Senate Committee Inquiry that 216,000 jobs were at risk in Queensland in the mining industry because of the Labor Party’s Emissions Trading Scheme.
Just yesterday it was announced that the State had lost its AAA rating and the Queensland Treasurer had announced that in two years time there would be a $3.2 billion deficit in the State finances.
And this is not a result of the KFC – I don’t call it the Global Financial Crisis I call it Kevin’s Financial Crisis, KFC – this is not as a result of the KFC but has been developing over the last twelve months.
I chaired a Senate Select Committee into State Government Financing and found, even a year ago, that the Queensland Government has nothing to show for the resources boom, had wasted windfall royalties and other income that should have been put away or invested in infrastructure, and now is left in a perilous financial position.
The Queensland Government is all spin and no substance. Who can point to any particular project ever constructed by the Beattie or Bligh Governments? We know they’re excellent at spin but as with most State Labor Governments, it’s all spin and no substance.
Corruption is endemic in the Labor Party. You only have to look at New South Wales to understand that. And how many recently serving Labor Ministers and Members of Parliament do you know of who are currently in jail for criminal offences.
And what about Premier Bligh’s husband? Now I’m sure he’s a very good fellow but one would have thought that someone else would have been better qualified for the job of heading up the State Office of Climate Change. Can you imagine the outrage that would have been heaped on John Howard if he had have appointed Jeanette to a top public service job? But barely a whisper on this outrageous appointment.
And you don’t have to look further than the disgrace of how Labor dealt with the electorate of Mulgrave. It seems that in the Labor Party, seats are owned and passed on from father to son without any possibility of giving locals a say in who should represent them. Vic, I think, would have given Warren Pitt a real challenge. Following this preselection scandal, I can only think Vic will do very well – very well indeed, as Northerners won’t stand for nepotism.
And what about the farce of calling an early election? The Premier and her cronies are more interested in their jobs than the jobs of working Queenslanders.
In the Federal sphere we have the $42 billion spending package which somewhere along the line someone will have to pay back. There’s no such thing as a free lunch and it’s the younger people in this room and perhaps their children who will be left with a $9,500 debt for every man, woman and child that has to be paid back.
This spending spree is not a stimulus package – just tell me how installing pink insulation bats in the roof is going to do anything to stimulate the Australian economy – it might stimulate the Chinese economy but certainly not the Australian.
And on top of that you have the Labor Party bungling ahead with its Emissions Trading Scheme which will make Australian industries uncompetitive against the rest of the world.
At another Senate Hearing I was involved in recently the Queensland Mineral Resources Council said that if the ETS goes through in its current form, we are likely to put 216,000 Queensland mining jobs at risk as Australian coal will be uncompetitive against coal from Indonesia, Mozambique and Mongolia – none of which countries will have the cost burden of an ETS. It’d be different if by loosing our minerals industry we were to have any impact on the changing climate of the world, but with Australia emitting less than 1.4% of the world’s greenhouse gases, we are going through the pain of exporting Australian jobs overseas without any gain on changing climate.
Even in the first Labor Federal Budget in years, unemployment was forecast at a new high of 116,000 and that’s only the tip of the iceberg with what we’re facing with the KFC and the ETS.
You’ll recall that Rudd and Swan in their inexperience, took office and continually talked up interest rates and inflation when they should have been doing the exact opposite.
This is where we need people like yourself, good people who are prepared to get up and have a go to make sure that we’re not left with the types of Governments we now have in Queensland and Federally.
It’s good people like yourselves who cannot afford to sit back, otherwise the evil of mismanagement will prevail.
You can’t rely on the media who are very often in bed with the Labor Party but what you can do is create your own media either by phone calls to local radio stations, to call back stations, letters to the editor, by involving yourself in email communication with as wide a group as possible.
Perhaps most importantly you need to try and involve other people in the political process and explain to them that evil will triumph unless good people get involved. And this involves getting more people into your Branches, to work on polling day, to make sure that we can make a difference.
We have three great candidates in Cairns with Wendy Richardson, Joel Harrop and Vic Black.
These three will make excellent representatives for the Far North Queensland and will ensure that we have a decent honest Government in Queensland after the election.
But they do need your help and it’s essential you get behind them.
I know by your presence here at this function tonight that you are helping but if you can help in any other way please let the candidates know. It may not be just more financial help on top of what you’ve already given but even just popping in and offering to volunteer could be useful, getting others involved is essential and making sure we have good teams on polling day will really make a difference.
So Ladies and Gentlemen it’s not what your country can do for you, it’s what you can do for your country and you can do something by getting involved in the process.
Many of our fellow Australians have the handout mentality. They are greedily looking forward to the $900 cash payment which Mr Rudd has bribed them with. There were indigenous people in years gone by who were told they had to do no more than to sit down and others would shower them with money. Fortunately that situation has changed in recent times with Noel Pearson and other leaders understanding that that process is no good for indigenous people.
But whilst Kevin Rudd understands that with $42 billion he can buy a lot of votes, this is not working towards what we can do for our country. It is accepting what our country can do for you.
And in Far North Queensland we have that type of culture of hard work, almost pioneers, trailblazing the way, getting involved, looking outside the circle, perhaps at times taking those risks which pioneers are prepared to take for the greater gain, not only for themselves, but also for the country they love.
Our Northern Australian Land and Water Taskforce which both Warren & I served on were looking at ways to increase food production in the North – which will have water in the future as the climate changes.
But for all the good work of our Taskforce, State and Territory Labor Governments have ignored water storage which can be done ecologically, sustainably. The Queensland Government is wracked by inertia in this area – as in most others – and opportunities for development are being ignored by a Queensland Government only interested in green preferences in Brisbane to stay where they can enjoy the rewards of power – without doing any of the hard work.
Unfortunately Warren and I, and passionate others, who were determined to make progress in the North have been sacked by the Rudd Government and replaced with a group of greenies, bureaucrats and academics – and I fear the momentum we nurtured will fade – and again Labor will ignore the north. Labor are interested only in power and that means they concentrate on those city areas which contain the bulk of the voters they need.
And the food we need to feed not only ourselves but also the 80 million new mouths each year that come into the world, will not be produced.
With places like the food bowl of the northern China plains running dry, there is an extra obligation on us in the north to help feed the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Albert Hubbard said that a friend is one who knows all about you but likes you just the same and I hope having heard my long speech and knowing all about me from it that you’ll still like me. But I do emphasise that none of us, me, our leaders, Malcolm Turnbull – none of us are perfect.
Malcolm Turnbull’s had the sort of week he’d rather not have had perhaps because of the selfishness of one or two of my colleagues.
The Liberal National Party, of course a Division of the Federal Liberal Party of Australia, is a new entity in Queensland and it is taking us in a new direction, - but we can always get better.
Our three candidates are not perfect – but having said that they’re pretty close to it. They are excellent people with a track record of community involvement who will make great representatives for this area. Lawrence Springborg has his detractors. Many will say that he’s not the sort of leader we need, many others will say the LNP is not perfect, but most of us in this room are in the position where, in spite of knowing all of the deficiencies of our leaders, our candidates, our Parties, still like our Party and its representatives.
And why is that so. It’s because we are desperate to get a decent party in Government in Queensland for the good of our country.
Even with all of its foibles and warts the Liberal National Party of Queensland is by far and away the best political organisation to give decent government to Queensland. It’s the real alternative. And with its emphasis on free enterprise, freedom of the individual, encouragement of fair reward for extra toil, while looking after those disadvantaged in our society who are not able to look after themselves, the LNP has the philosophy, ethics and commitment to get Queensland moving again.
Ladies and Gentlemen people say to me why am I still involved. Why don’t I retire on a parliamentary pension and not work day and night in the job that I’m currently doing.
Well I do it because I want to make sure that good people do win the State Election and the Federal Election to make a difference. I want to encourage young and old people to get involved. I want to say to people, look you may not be perfect but you have qualities and attributes which would be a great asset in government.
I have the same passion for the North as Warren has demonstrated and as our three candidates Wendy, Joel and Vic have also shown. I don’t want to sit back and let the country look after me. I want to continue to do what I can for my country and particularly for Northern Australia. There is huge potential up here and I want to make sure that in my role as the Federal Opposition Spokesman for Northern Australia, that we are identifying and taking advantage of the opportunities Northern Australia gives to our country.
I also enjoy the friends I make in the business I’m in. The Liberal National Party is really one big family and again although we do have imperfections, and I perhaps have more than most, but we do our best to do what’s right for our country without worrying about what our country could do for us.
Thanks for coming along tonight, thanks for the support for our three candidates you’ve given so generously so far. Thanks for volunteering, giving additional money if you can, getting` others involved, whatever you can do to make sure these three are our representatives for Far North Queensland in the next Parliament of Queensland. Good Luck to them and to you all.