Shadow Treasurer Curtis Pitt says Premier Campbell Newman and Treasurer Tim Nicholls have again gone out of their way to talk down Queensland and scare off potential investors.
“It is no wonder the recent Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment survey showed Queensland had the largest fall in confidence of any state,” Mr Pitt said.
“The survey attributed the plunge to uncertainty about the LNP’s first State Budget.
“Today’s antics in Question Time by the Premier, repeating his claims about a ‘dive into the abyss’, and the efforts by the Treasurer to outdo him by referring to the state dropping off Niagara Falls do nothing to instil business or consumer confidence.
“Potential investors will also be unsettled by the Premier’s inability to explain the latest borrowing of $1.65 billion undertaken by his government.
“For the Premier to claim the borrowings were to ‘keep the lights on’ follow his similarly ridiculous claims that the government had to borrow to pay its employees’ wages.
“Investors will run a mile from putting their funds into Queensland bonds if they think they are being used to fund such spending.
“It is clear the Premier has no idea why his government is continuing to borrow at the same time he is leading a dishonest campaign centred on a mythical ‘$100 billion debt’ manufactured for him by his Liberal mate Peter Costello’s audit.”
Mr Pitt said the Premier also could not explain the purpose of the extra $20 billion in debt his government has said it was happy to incur in the lead up to 2014-15.
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