Answer to Labor’s migrant jobs plan is No!
14 JANUARY 2019: The response to the latest thought bubble from the Palaszczuk Labor Government, to send migrants to North Queensland communities which are already struggling with high unemployment, needs to be a resounding No.
The State Labor Government is standing in the way of jobs in the north by holding up approvals for the Adani Carmichael Mine Project, inhibiting agricultural enterprise through dangerous and impractical land-clearing laws, punishing the fishing industry with new measures and dragging their heels on projects to build dams. They now want to throw another spanner in the works by flooding the regions with immigrants in areas like Townsville and Bowen that have near double digit unemployment figures.
The Queensland Labor Government won’t support the industries that produce jobs in the bush, like mining and agriculture, and they want to make matters worse by crowding out the local job market with thousands of immigrants. I will be writing to my Federal colleague, the Minister for Immigration David Coleman, to urge him to reject this idea from Queensland Labor.
Sending migrants to regions where there are not enough jobs to go round now makes no sense. The Labor candidate for Dawson needs to make her position clear on this issue as well. Does she support the workers of North Queensland, or is she a Labor puppet who dances to the tune of her state and federal masters?