LNP shadow minister for state development Andrew Cripps said Labor’s Building our Regions program is a smaller, shorter and narrower version of the previous government’s initiative and regional Queenslanders deserve better.

Mr Cripps said the Palaszczuk-Gordon government is short-changing Queensland’s regional communities after cutting down and rebranding the LNP’s ‘‘flagship’’ Royalties for the Regions initiative.

‘‘The LNP had a plan to deliver $500million over four years, while Labor is only investing $200million over two years,’’ MrCripps said.

‘‘The rebranded and reduced program means Labor will dictate to local communities how the funding should be spent, instead of letting locals decide the priorities for their area.

‘‘This is a backward step and shows Labor’s clear lack of commitment to regional Queensland.’’

State Development Minister  Anthony Lynham said Mr Cripps’ estimations don’t add up.

‘‘The minister suggests, with all due respect, Mr Cripps should buy a calculator because his maths simply doesn’t add up,’’ he said.

 ‘‘The $200million over two years the Palaszczuk government is committing in 2015-16 and 2016-17 is a similar level of funding that the previous government planned to allocate during the same two-year period.

 ‘‘The real difference lies in where the funds will be going.

 ‘‘The Palaszczuk government’s Building our Regions infrastructure program is only open to regional communities, not to government departments.’’

Dr Lynham said Mount Isa would get a better portion of the funding.

‘‘Our program is designed to make sure that resource communities like Mount Isa get their fair share from our $55million Royalties for Resource-Producing Communities Fund,’’ he said.

‘‘Most importantly, our program will focus on creating jobs, building critical infrastructure and delivering for communities like Mount Isa.

‘‘And it doesn’t involve selling our assets.’’

But Mr Cripps said Dr Lynham had no plan of his own and had been re-announcing successful projects from round four of the LNP’s Royalties to the Regions initiative while outlining the details of Labor’s Building our Regions program.

‘‘This only reinforces to Queenslanders that this is an inexperienced government with no plans on how to create jobs and boost the economy,’’ he said. ‘‘Labor are relying on LNP ideas for regional development without providing sufficient funding.

‘‘In the first 100 days of the Palaszczuk-Gordon government, business confidence is down, unemployment is up and regional Queensland is losing out on vital funding.

‘‘Queenslanders deserve a government that has a plan to deliver job-creating infrastructure instead of stripping much-needed funds out of the bush.’’