Mr WETTENHALL (19 June 2009) (12.26 pm): I rise to support the Appropriation Bill and the other related bills before the House today. I too, have listened to what have become wearisome contributions from members opposite during this debate on these bills. The criticism of this government's approach to deficit-fund its record infrastructure program has been predictable and repetitive. The only interesting thing about the contributions from members opposite is that not one member has offered an alternative policy approach-not one. That is interesting, because it portrays how bereft the LNP is of policy firepower. It has no policy firepower. All the LNP members want to do is come into this chamber and have a bob each way. That is what they have done during this debate: they have had a bob each way. Every single member who has stood up has had a bob each way. They want to say, ‘You can't go into debt. The debt the government has gone into
is bad debt,' yet not one member has said which projects they would sacrifice.
Over the past five to 10 years, all opposition members have accepted with open arms-not surprisingly-the schools, the new roads, the bridges, the new hospitals, the extra police stations, the new courts, the extra doctors, the extra nurses for our hospitals. They have all agreed with all of that, but when it comes to paying the bills they want a bob each way and they have not had the guts to say which of those
projects, which of those front-line services, they would sacrifice.

 What we have seen is a paltry contribution by members opposite to some very,
very fundamental questions which I am proud this government, led by Premier Anna Bligh and Treasurer Andrew Fraser, has confronted head on. They have brought forward what every member on this side of the House has acknowledged have been difficult and in some cases controversial decisions.

Nevertheless, they are the right decisions. They are the only decisions to avoid a calamity in the form of unemployment. The issue of unemployment is where the big fault line in Australian politics and in this debate has been exposed. The conservative political parties have traditionally-and there are plenty of examples of this-been willing to sacrifice people's jobs to attain their philosophical objective. Let us not
forget in this debate that over and over again in the bob-each-way debate from members opposite we have heard, ‘We do not oppose privatisation; it is just the wrong time.' This argument conveniently ignores the fact that the asset sales proposed in the bills before the House will not go ahead for three to five years. I have not heard one member opposite acknowledge that fact. All this talk about it being sales at the bottom of the market is absolute nonsense.

Fundamentally, members opposite have not dealt fairly and squarely with the issue of
unemployment. We only have to go back to the recession of the early 1980s to remember the position of the Liberal Party on unemployment. Malcolm Fraser said, ‘Life wasn't meant to be easy.' He did not care about the growing unemployment queues. He pursued a divisive agenda. He demonised people who had lost their jobs. He introduced a punitive regime for people who were unemployed, and the
Australian people threw them out in 1983 in preference for a Labor government that was to pursue a social agenda and a social contract. That is the same mould that has been adopted by members opposite in this debate.

What would happen to the 127,000 people who are going to be employed as a
result of this government's maintenance of an $18.2 billion infrastructure program if the Queensland people-
 It is interesting that the member for Clayfield is interjecting in this debate, because what would have happened if they had formed a government? It would have cost $1.5 billion to build a new Cairns Base Hospital. That was their promise in the form of a public-private partnership. They would have added an extra billion dollars to the bottom line of the debt that they are complaining about.

The people of Cairns and the people of Queensland did not trust those sorts of promises. They trusted Premier Anna Bligh. They trusted this Labor government to deal with the worst economic circumstances since the depression and to take us through the tough times fundamentally offering this promise to the people of Queensland: that we would do everything in our power to protect and create jobs.
The people of Cairns are benefiting from that right now in a range of government projects. The only cranes that can be seen in the sky in Cairns are those working on government projects. That is where the cranes are in the sky of Cairns. That is why this government-and I am proud to be a member of it-is determined to maintain those projects even if it means going into debt to do so.
Mr Nicholls interjected.
Mr WETTENHALL: The member for Clayfield should have a look on his computer one day at all of the governments around the world and find one that is not dealing with this unprecedented economic crisis by borrowing funds to maintain infrastructure projects.

The following are projects that are occurring in the Cairns region on which many of my constituents will be employed. We have an expansion of the Lotus Glen Correctional Centre. We have the Cairns Base Hospital redevelopment. We have the new state
government office building, William McCormack Place. All of those projects are maintaining employment in a town that has also been hit hard by the downturn in the tourism market.

That is why I am also so pleased to support this bill, which contains $38 million of new funding-not funding robbed from an existing scheme, which is what the opposition proposed to do during the election campaign-to support marketing our first-class product throughout the state and in Far North Queensland.

An extra $38 million is worth about 1,000 jobs. I am looking forward to the new advertising campaigns that will appear on our television screens and through the media promoting Queensland as a fantastic holiday destination, because that is going to protect jobs.

I want to acknowledge a couple of key projects in the Barron River electorate
which I am very pleased have been funded under this budget.

There is a significant amount of money to continue the safety improvements on the Kuranda Range Road, which is a key link road between Cairns and the tablelands, particularly to pursue safety improvements and to build on the significant investment that has been made. I acknowledge the focus that the previous member for Mulgrave and Minister for Main Roads, Mr Warren Pitt, placed on that. I acknowledge the focus that the current Minister for Main Roads has on the Kuranda Range Road. It is a very significant road. There is money to continue planning for the ultimate widening of that project but, most importantly, there are significant funds to improve safety on that road.

There are also significant funds to improve safety on the Captain Cook Highway, particularly in relation to cyclist safety. Both of those issues are issues on which I have had ongoing discussions and have lobbied the relevant minister about. I thank them for allocating those funds on those important road projects.

I want to conclude by mentioning the investment the government has made through these bills in the environment. Other members have spoken of them. This government makes a significant investment into the management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which underpins the tourism industry not only in Far North Queensland but also up and down the coast. I am very pleased to see that ongoing commitment.
There is also the first tranche of funding towards improving the quality of the water flowing into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, which is critical to the long-term health and survival of our reef.

These are important environmental initiatives which have been achieved, I might add in conclusion, because of some very good long-term planning and investing of some of the proceeds and the profits from the boom time in those funds which we are now able to draw on in these tough times. That is in contradiction to what we have heard from members opposite over and over again about a failure to plan for the future. Those funds are now being used for important environmental projects. With those comments, I commend the bills to the House.