Why won’t Bill Shorten support job-creating projects for CQ workers?

LABOR leader Bill Shorten has confirmed that his government will do nothing to support the workers of Central and North Queensland who are desperate to see Adani’s Carmichael Mine Project go ahead.Why is Mr Shorten so opposed to the project when it’s vital for the economy of the region?Mr Shorten said in Mackay today, and I quote ‘The Commonwealth Government I lead wouldn’t be putting taxpayers’ money into the Adani mine.’

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Labor plan a threat to farmers’ livelihoods

AS if farmers don't have enough to deal with when it comes to tree clearing laws, we now have Federal Labor pollies from city seats announcing fancy plans to introduce more ‘green police’.Bill Shorten has announced a plan to overrule state tree clearing policies, and send in Federal 'green police to tell farmers what they can and can't do on their own land.So we would have jumped-up federal bureaucrats flashing badges, stopping landholders from doing the work needed to run a normal farming enterprise.Only city slickers like Bill Shorten would come up with such a restrictive and blatantly unfair policy.

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Labor plan for another carbon tax whack

Labor’s announcement today that they would essentially bring back a carbon tax if elected beggars belief.The Opposition’s climate plan also includes an option for them to further restrict farmers’ ability to clear their own land.Labor’s fearless leader Bill Shorten will go blindly where Labor leaders before him have gone, and that’s down the path of introducing a carbon tax which will cost jobs and drive up power prices.Shorten has announced that a Labor Government will introduce an emissions reduction target of 45 per cent by 2030, so this would essentially double Australia’s emissions reduction targets.

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Bill should tell Labor buddies to get moving on the Haughton

THE ability to progress work on some Bruce Highway projects rests entirely in Labor’s hands, and the best thing Bill Shorten could do for the Bruce Highway is to tell his counterparts in the State Labor Government to pull their finger out.I believe Mr Shorten has been making announcements regarding Labor's plans for the Bruce Highway in Townsville today, and he should ask his counterparts in the Palaszczuk government ‘why is Labor holding up the Haughton River Bridge Replacement?’The replacement of this bridge has been voted the most urgent problem to be fixed on that stretch of the Bruce Highway between Mackay and Townsville.

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Labor shows lack of support for Adani jobs

I have called on Dawson Labor candidate Frank Gilbert to decide whether he supports the development of Adani’s Carmichael Coal Project which will create thousands of much-needed jobs in the region.Mr Gilbert is telling people desperate for jobs that he supports Adani, but at the same time he’s attacking the project on social media.Last night Mr Gilbert attended a Bowen Chamber of Commerce meeting where I was guest speaker, and he told that audience that he supported the Adani project.But earlier this month on Facebook, Mr Gilbert posted a link to an article which attacked the Carmichael Coal Project and he himself commented that it was “ignorant and irresponsible” to back the fossil fuel industry.

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Time for Premier to walk the walk

THE Queensland Premier’s talk of fast-tracking infrastructure projects in North Queensland is an absolute joke when two of the biggest job-creating projects, namely the Mackay Ring Road and the Haughton River Bridge replacement, are lost in a bureaucratic bog.We need more than rubbish talk from Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on fast-tracking these big projects, because the blame for holding up hundreds of jobs lies squarely with the State Labor Government.The Federal Government had already committed to fast-tracking funding for these infrastructure projects at my insistence; that promise was secured back in September 2014 from then Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

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Taking the tax pledge

HAVE signed a Tax Pledge demonstrating my commitment to vote against any tax increases, and I'm challenging Labor Leader Bill Shorten and his local Labor candidate to do the same while they’re both in Mackay tomorrow.I've taken this stance ahead of an orchestrated “GST Forum” being hosted by the Labor Party on Wednesday night.I didn’t go into politics to increase taxes, I went in to lower taxes, and in fact in my maiden speech I said exactly that.

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