Shadow Treasurer and Member for Mulgrave said Campbell Newman’s asset sales plan would lead to higher power prices and more job losses across the Far North.
“Campbell Newman’s broken promises on unemployment and electricity prices are already hurting the people of our area,” Mr Pitt said.
“It’s particularly galling that Gavin King is trying to tell Far North residents that asset sales will have no impact on them. Let me tell you – if you have an electricity bill, you will be impacted by the LNP’s asset sales.
“This Budget does nothing to ease the pain. In fact it has no plans for jobs and no plans to ease the cost of living.
“In our region, there’s been another cut to infrastructure funding of $295 million next financial year.
“That could mean less jobs and less economic activity in our region. The only capital works in the Far North are Labor projects like the Cairns Base Hospital redevelopment.
“There’s also no guarantee that the Edmonton land put aside for a hospital has been saved, not sold, no funding for Gordonvale’s axed kindergarten, and no money for land and planning for a new Gordonvale fire station.
“I welcome the $2.1 million provided to upgrade the Gilles Range Road near Goldsborough, and I also welcome any new funding for health services, but will be interested to see how this translates into the new beds and new services we need.
“I also have serious questions over the $1.5 million supposedly allocated to the Yarrabah Library.
“The former Labor Government allocated $2 million to this project – is this funding extra? Or has there but a cut to this project? Either way the project is well overdue having been announced in late 2011.
“The LNP has no excuses as to why there isn’t any money identified in this budget for a feasibility study for dredging the Johnstone River. The Transport Minister has ruled it out, even though money was promised by the former Labor Government.
“A feasibility study is the responsible thing to do in order to know the real costs both in dollar terms and to the environment would be, and to ultimately make an informed decision.”
Mr Pitt said that parents of children with a disability have been ignored again because the Cairns Special School still hasn’t gotten off the ground.
“The former Labor Government had already committed $32 million for the Cairns Special School, which would have been built in time for students to have enrolled in the current 2014 school year but the local LNP MPs have gone missing in action on this issue,” Mr Pitt said.
“The Cairns Special School project has been an epic fail from Gavin King and the LNP and it has fallen by the wayside while Campbell Newman devotes his energies towards a new tunnel in Brisbane.
“The Opposition was unable to find any money in last year’s budget for the $500,000 feasibility study Mr King says he has secured and there is no money for a capital project in this year’s budget.
“At the very least, Mr King should release the feasibility study he says his Government has funded. If he can’t do that, then any suggestion he’s done one can’t be believed.
“This is the last Budget before the election, which means this was always a hollow promise with no credibility. This broken promise is every bit as bad as Campbell Newman’s broken promise to lower electricity bills.
“My preference would still be for a Special School to located at Bentley Park College but this school would be welcome anywhere in the region to ensure the provision of quality education for the broader Far North Queensland community.”
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