Article: Lawrence Springborg promises building works; Anna Bligh, jobs

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Lawrence Springborg promises building works; Anna Bligh, jobs

Lawrence Springborg promises building works; Anna Bligh, jobs
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Rosemary Odgers and Patrick Lion

March 15, 2009 02:15pm

PREMIER Anna Bligh has promised to create 100,000 jobs, while Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has pledged $726.9 million worth of building projects.

Officially launching her campaign today for Saturday's Queensland election, Ms Bligh said Queenslanders would have a "stark choice between jobs or cuts".

"That's the difference between us and them," she declared at Labor's official campaign launch.

"As we face our future together, you can count on me."

Ms Bligh promised that despite the economic crisis, she would create 100,000 extra jobs over the next three years by keeping the infrastructure plan going and developing new industries particularly in solar and liquid natural gas projects.

Mr Springborg said the Liberal National Party pledged $260 million for the Gold Coast's so-called rapid transit project and $93 million for a bus rapid transit project in Brisbane.

Another promises include $100 million for semi-acute medical facilities at Townsville and Nambour hospitals and $18.9 million to rebuild Flinders Mall in Townsville.

Mr Springborg also pledged $80 million for local government infrastructure and $25 million to boost skills training.

The LNP has also promised $150 million to bring forward the construction of a police academy, which has been delayed by Labor.

Mr Springborg said he would fund the package by scrapping Labor's controversial Traveston Dam proposal and from "government waste".

The Premier made a raft of "green-friendly" pledges including delivering cut-price solar hot water systems to 200,000 households, building a 2000km walk from the Daintree River to Cape York, protecting more wild rivers and the Great Barrier Reef and cracking down on the clearing of endangered regrowth vegetation.

Labor also promised an extra 600 new police over the next three years, another 500 teacher aides, a new science program in Queensland schools, better cancer services, improved maternity services in rural and regional areas and $3 million to fund respite services for young people with disabilities.

[ozbob]

From LNP here!

LNP announces $726.9 million ?Rebuild Queensland? package

Lawrence Springborg MP

Leader of the LNP

Leader of the Opposition

Member for Southern Downs

15 March 2009

A Springborg LNP Government will kick start Queensland?s economy and create 10,000 jobs through a $726.9 million ?Rebuild Queensland? package.

LNP Leader Lawrence Springborg unveiled the package at the LNP?s official state election campaign launch in Brisbane today.

Mr Springborg said an LNP Government would use funds freed from scrapping the Traveston Crossing Dam and cutting Government waste for the $726.9 million package, which would bring forward work on $1.37 billion worth of major infrastructure projects.

"Everyone knows that big infrastructure projects are the best way to stimulate economic activity and still generate benefits across the community for years to come," he said.

"The LNP?s $726.9 million ?Rebuild Queensland? package will kick start business, create confidence, demonstrate the true economic capacity of our state and create lasting advantages for generations of Queenslanders to come."

The ?Rebuild Queensland? package includes:

- $260 million for the Gold Coast Rapid Transit Project;

- $93 million for the Bus Rapid Transit project in Brisbane;

- $80 million for local councils across Queensland to provide roads, bridges, water and sewerage works, and other local infrastructure projects;

- $150 million to bring forward stage one of the police academy project delayed by Labor;

- $100 million for semi-acute medical facilities and other works at Townsville and Nambour;

- $18.9 million to rebuild the Flinders Mall in Townsville; and

- $25 million in capital works projects to revitalize skills training and TAFE facilities in Queensland.

Mr Springborg said under the LNP, every cent of this money was allocated for expenditure in the 2009/10 financial year.

"For us it is about reform. Reform of Labor?s waste. Reform of Labor?s mismanagement," he said.

"The LNP?s better economic management will provide us with the flexibility to address priority projects that will benefit all Queenslanders.

"According to economic experts ? experts like ABN AMRO Morgans chief economist Michael Knox ? our reforms are achievable. The reforms ? combined with identified budget black holes - will easily meet the LNP?s $1 billion target without sacking public servants."

Mr Springborg said the Traveston Crossing Dam still sat on Labor?s budget but it was not creating a single construction job.

"The LNP will scrap the Traveston Crossing Dam, wiping out more than $300 million in waste in 2009/10 in just one hit," he said.

"The LNP will fund the construction of our new desalination plant from 2010/11, leaving us with a massive injection for capital works in the next 12 months when Queensland really needs it."

Mr Springborg said only the LNP had been honest about the full ramifications of its policies.

"Labor has lied, or used Rudd money, because they are bereft of ideas or the ability to change.

"Under the LNP, every cent is accounted for and still our expenditures will represent an improvement on the financial position proposed by Labor.

"Only the LNP has the capacity and the drive to create jobs in the short term ? to create jobs and replace jobs lost."

Gold Coast Rapid Transit

Mr Springborg said Labor talked about the Gold Coast Rapid Transit project, but had failed to provide a meaningful financial commitment beyond the current financial year.

"The LNP?s $260 million funding commitment through the ?Rebuild Queensland? package will allow the completion of two stages of the light rail project (from Parklands to Broadbeach) just four years from now in 2013," he said.

"The money we pledge today would also provide for planning the Broadbeach to Burleigh and the Helensvale to Parkland sections."

The Gold Coast City Council has already allocated $120 million to the project. A further $380 million would be required from the Federal Government and $140 million from the private sector.

Brisbane Bus Rapid Transit project

Mr Springborg said the $93 million Bus Rapid Transit project in Brisbane would have a big impact on commuter flows through the central city area and was the final realisation of a concept that had stalled for more than a decade under Labor.

"This project involves the construction of a new fleet of 20 advanced buses to provide a dedicated service at four minute intervals from Newstead through the CBD to West End. It includes works to redesign intersections to provide buses with priority traffic access and to ensure more buses run on time."

The project is expected to be completed and operational in the first quarter of 2010.

Funding for semi-acute medical facilities at Townsville and Nambour

Mr Springborg said the LNP was determined to push ahead with the further redevelopment of Townsville Hospital and had already announced plans to purchase the CSIRO site adjacent to the hospital.

"The AMA has described the Townsville Hospital as the most stressed in the state so it is frustrating that a comprehensive master plan has been completed by Queensland Health but not released," he said.

"The LNP has had sections of the report leaked to us and a key component is an off-campus semi-acute facility to provide accommodation for patients moving into and out of acute hospital care.

"The LNP will commit $80 million to create a semi-acute facility at Townsville and relocate administrative functions at the old CSIRO site.

"An additional $20 million is earmarked for a similar facility at Nambour Hospital to complement the recently commenced construction of a new acute medical block."

Revitalising skills training and supporting local councils

Mr Springborg said the eleven year old Labor Government had a shocking record of underperformance in skills training.

"In just five years to 2007, Labor presided over a significant decline in the number of people trained through TAFE and private colleges," he said.

"If we had held at the training levels achieved in 2003, an extra 60,000 Queenslanders would have been trained in that period."

Mr Springborg said an LNP Government would inject $50 million into TAFE facilities, with $25 million through the ?Rebuild Queensland? package in 2009/10 and a further $25 million in 2010/11.

"To boost the supply of TAFE teachers, we will spend $2.6 million to reintroduce the Beginners Teachers Program over four years ? offering 1000 candidates support to obtain their diploma of teaching," he said.

"The LNP will also boost the training of nurses, subsidising an additional 800 training places over four years."

Mr Springborg said the $80 million boost for local councils would help create local jobs and support local small businesses.

"What the LNP offers is a comprehensive employment package, creating job opportunities for 10,000 people across a wide range of sectors and regions throughout Queensland," he said.

[ozbob]

From ALP here!

100,000 JOBS TO KEEP QUEENSLAND STRONG

Premier Anna Bligh has pledged to create 100,000 new jobs to guide Queensland through the global financial crisis and make our State even stronger than before.

Ms Bligh said she would throw her heart and soul into the plan to support and create jobs across Queensland over the next three years.

?I stake my own future on these 100,000 jobs ? I know that Queensland needs jobs not cuts,? she said.

?We need to create work, not rip $1 billion out of the State budget to cut jobs and services exactly when we need them most as the Opposition plans to do.

?If we win this election it will be because the people of Queensland have trusted me to protect their jobs and to create the new jobs that will keep this State strong.

?This is a real target that I intend to deliver. I have a plan to keep Queensland strong and we can do it. We can make our great State even stronger than before.?

Premier Anna Bligh has outlined the four point plan that a new Bligh Government will use to create 100,000 new jobs over the next three years.

The Premier said the four point plan would:

? keep Queensland?s record building program going
? prepare for recovery by developing skills for the future
? create new jobs by supporting the new industries of the future like Liquid Natural Gas and Solar while focusing on our traditional strengths like tourism and;
? develop new job creation programs

?Our plan means 100,000 new pay packets. It means 100,000 bread winners in 100,000 Queensland homes,? said the Premier.

?We need to create jobs to get us through these bad times, we also need to make sure we are positioned to take advantage of the good times when they return.

?That means we will continue to invest in the jobs and the services that people need, not cut jobs and services.

?We will do that because we believe that people and families are more important than heartlessly protecting the bottom line.?

Ms Bligh said the first point in her plan meant she would not cut back on the State?s capital building program because of the global financial crisis.

?Now is not the time to cut and run. The last thing Queensland needs now is a Government that will lose its nerve,? she said.

?Our $17 billion capital building program is the largest in the country. It is building the better roads, schools and hospitals we need and it supports 119,000 jobs.

?That means thousands and thousands of families across this state who have at least one breadwinner because we are building tomorrow?s Queensland today.?

The Premier said that thousands of apprentices and trainees across the State are learning the skills which will place Queensland ahead of the pack when the global economy recovers.

?We need these young men and women because we must prepare for the recovery that will follow these difficult times,? she said.

?That?s why we will put in place a 125% payroll tax incentive that means if an employer has more apprentices and trainees they pay less tax.

?That?s why we will require that ten percent of the workforce on every Government project in Queensland is an apprentice or trainee and we will implement a $414 million scheme to create almost 150,00 new training places and grow our skills base.

?We will invest almost $6.5 million in a scheme to make sure Queensland businesses and manufacturers get the maximum benefit of our building program because Queensland made means Queensland jobs.?

Ms Bligh said an essential part of her plan was to create new jobs through support for new industries such as Liquid Natural Gas.

?We have already declared Curtis Island a State Development Area and we know that the Liquid Natural Gas market is growing rapidly at a rate of five percent to ten percent every year,? she said.

?Yesterday I announced our intention to acquire the land to create a new gas superhighway to support this industry.

?Industries such as LNG, solar energy and geothermal can deliver a more environmentally friendly future as well as create thousands of jobs.?

The Premier said the Green Army scheme she announced early in the election campaign was an example of the sort of initiative Government can put in place to create and support jobs in Queensland.

?The Green Army will create up to 3,000 positions for the long term unemployed,? she said

?We want jobs not cuts - that is what we will deliver.?

[ozbob]

At least the LNP have spelt out clearly their transport policies.

Still waiting for the ALP ....

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Labor steps to the left

Labor steps to the left
Tony Moore | March 15, 2009 - 3:34PM

Anna Bligh promised to buy 200,000 solar hot water systems to sell to householders at $500 each as the ALP took a step to the left at today's ALP campaign launch.

Pledging to turn Queensland into "the solar state of Australia" Ms Bligh said the ALP's solar hot water scheme would save about $300 a year to the average household power bill.

The solar hot water systems will go to public tender in 2009 and will be offered to households over three years at $500 each, rather than the estimated retail price of $4500.

It was the biggest single ticket item at today's ALP campaign launch, opened by Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd welcomed Anna Bligh to the stage.

The solar hot water plan would cost an estimated $27.4 million over three years.

Ms Bligh also pledged to create 100,000 new jobs in her next three years, if re-elected.

"I state my future on these 100,000 jobs," Ms Bligh said.

"I know that Queensland needs jobs, not cuts."

At the launch, held at South Bank's Queensland Conservatorium theatre, Labor finally accepting the need to expand "renewable" energy resources to create jobs.

ALP promises included:

- beginning a $1.23 million feasibility study and build the first 230km of a 2000km Great Walk from the Daintree River to the tip of Cape York;

- giving farmers the right to trade carbon credits on re-growth vegetation on leasehold properties;

- widening the Wild Rivers legislation by nominating the Diamantina and Georgina rivers as well as Cooper Creek and;

- introducing legislation announced earlier this year to cut pesticides and fertilisers which are running into waters flowing on to the Great Barrier Reef.

Anna Bligh - dressed in a white pants suit - entered the theatre at the Queensland Conservatorium - to the power chording of Powderfinger's On My Mind, written by the Brisbane rock group for their "Vulture Street" album, the inner city street where the band had a practice room down from Bligh's electorate office.

While Bligh deliberately targetted northern and central Queensland, as well as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast with new cancer and radiation treatment announcements, she pushed Labor's green credentials to create jobs.

"Queensland has an abundance of potential and we're world leaders in clean coal technology," Ms Bligh said.

"But right now we generate just six per cent of our energy from renewable resources.

"We can and we will do better."

While she mentioned solar thermal energy, there was no further substance offered at today's launch.

"Industries like solar thermal and geo-thermal will power our future and power job creation."

However, she identified 6000 jobs would be created in the low carbon, liquid natural gas (LNG) industry around Gladstone and a further 3000 jobs would be created by the "Green Army" to soak up unemployment.

The ALP also promised to:

- create up to 600 new police, accusing the LNP of having to cut support staff to fund 1000 new officers;

- create an extra 500 teacher aide positions over three years costing $43 million, and;

- a $25 million expansion of the Townsville neo-natal hospital unit, and extra midwifery services at nine locations from 2009-10 costing $5 million.

There was no mention of the Traveston Dam.
Source: The Sun-Herald

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

'They couldn't sell fish to starving seals'

'They couldn't sell fish to starving seals'
March 15, 2009 - 12:29PM

Queensland Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has announced a $726.9 million Rebuild Queensland package at the launch of the Liberal National Party's (LNP) official campaign launch in Brisbane.

Mr Springborg entered the room to pumping music, waving banners, and cheers of "Go The Borg".

He promised to kick-start Queensland's economy to create 10,000 jobs using funds freed from scrapping the Traveston Dam and cutting government waste.

"The Bligh government asks where is all the money coming from?" he said.

"We simply say where has all the money gone?"

In his speech, federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull accused the Bligh government of delivering a terrible trifecta of higher unemployment, higher debt and more strikes.

"They're so incompetent they couldn't sell fresh fish to starving seals," Mr Turnbull said.

AAP

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

His name is Kevin and he was there to help

His name is Kevin and he was there to help
Tony Moore | March 15, 2009 - 4:35PM

His name is Kevin and he was there to help.

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stepped on to the stage before Premier Anna Bligh moved into her campaign speech, you felt the line, but it did not come.

Kevin Rudd did not say: "My name is Kevin and I am here to help."

But you felt it.

It was the unspoken feeling in the theatre at the Queensland Conservatorium where the ALP launched its 2009 election campaign just after lunch.

Kevin Rudd stepped forward just after Troy Casser-Daly played two songs, including a very impressive new tune called "This Day is Mine", which is now bound to be included on his new album.

Deputy Premier Paul Lucas had set the serious tone and called for "clear-eyed courage."

"A campaign that offers a clear choice between a Labor government that will deliver jobs and new services and a sense of hope and optimism for the future," Mr Lucas said.

"Or the National Party that has promised to cut 12,000 jobs, a plan to cut one billion dollars from the budget, but no plan for the future."

Kevin Rudd said he had known Anna Bligh for 20 years.

"You get to know somebody after 20 years," Mr Rudd said.

"That friend is Anna Bligh. A good person, a strong leader with a no-nonsense, practical down to earth approach," he said.

"Someone who speaks their mind - and in my experience - speaks her mind constantly."

It was left to Mr Rudd to attack Mr Springborg on public sector jobs cuts, a role taken by Ms Bligh on Friday.

"Friends, there are two possible responses to the global economic recession and its impact on Australian and Queensland jobs," Mr Rudd said.

"You can either sit back, wait and do nothing and these people will face the full force of the global economic storm unprotected as the Liberal and National's recommend," he said.

"Or you can stimulate the economy, to support jobs to reduce the impact of the storm as the Queensland Government is doing."

Afterwards, two senior ALP figures agreed it was now crunch time for the ALP.

"She (Anna Bligh) is going to need it, I think."
Source: The Sun-Herald

[mufreight]

Captain Bligh is making much of employment yet she and her Transport Minister have between them laid off almost a thousand workers on rail projects already planned or part completed.
The work on Beerburrum to Landsborough realignment and duplication has been put on hold seems like a lack of funds has brought work to a stand and removed employment for some 600 plus workers, on the Springfield project the work has been slowed effectively costing another 100 plus workers employment and the link between the northern coal systems and then the link between the southern coal system and Wandoan for export coal traffic from the Downs to Gladstone which has also seen more jobs put on hold so how genuine are these arrogant overpaid ineffectual politicians with their armies of advisors and media hacks papering over the inadequacies of the present government to justify their existence rather than provide the services, infrastructure and employment opportunities that the people of this state are entitled to expect.
Will the LNP be any better? who knows but if they do not measure up and the fact that they can be given the boot next time round will be motivation for them to do something constructive, we can only hope.