Palaszczuk Government fixed DAF problems
Re Dale Last letter (Star, October 31). Since elected in 2015 the Palaszczuk Government has stabilised and strengthened the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to better support producers and rural communities. We inherited a department shell-shocked and demoralised after three years of LNP cuts.
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The LNP sacked more than 600 positions from DAF, mostly staff in rural and regional offices. The scale of the impact on the Bush was highlighted by one of their own. LNP Senator Barry O’Sullivan told a drought forum in Longreach in 2015: “My state government took 44 families out of this community. It was a wrong decision.”
DAF lost a third of its staff in Longreach under the LNP, and they chopped 26% from Biosecurity Queensland and 28% from Fisheries Queensland.
Our priority in 2015 was to restore confidence and stop the cuts which had significantly weakened services to the food and fibre sector.
In the last few weeks we have started recruitment of up to 140 additional staff as part of the nationally agreed strategy to double efforts to eradicate red imported fire ants. An additional 20 Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers started work in October as part of our $20 million strategy to develop a world-class fisheries management system.
Furthermore, in this last year, the service footprint of QRIDA expanded to include a new office in Cloncurry – the 9th regional QRIDA office in Queensland.
The latest comments from the LNP on DAF staffing show they are not only in denial about the damage they caused when they were in office but also that they are wilfully ignorant about how to correctly interpret official government statistics.
Claims by Shadow Agriculture Minister Dale Last that retiring Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne and DAF Director General Dr Beth Woods misled Parliament about staff numbers are ludicrous.
Mr Last is a serial offender misinterpreting facts and his claim that there were 2168 full-time equivalent staff in DAF when the LNP were booted out is simply wrong.
While the maximum number of departmental staff was capped at 2,168 in the LNP Budget, the number of actual full-time equivalent employees was 1,963 when they left office.
I can categorically assure all those who care about Queensland agriculture and fisheries that there are more staff employed in the department today than when the LNP lost government and the Palaszczuk Government is continuing to invest in supporting producers and rural communities.
I can further assure Queenslanders that the Palaszczuk Government has made no cuts to staff in the department since the election in 2015.
Dr Anthony Lynham
Acting Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries
A week of political turmoil
The NBN debacle, the pointless National Energy Guarantee, the calamity that was the Australian Federal Police raid on the offices of the Australian Worker's Union and the High Court rulings on citizenship.
What could be worse? Well, wait for it.
After months of consultation and negotiation, this pathetic LNP Turnbull government chose to ignore, outright, the findings and recommendations of our Aboriginal peoples. It didn't even go to cabinet.
This Turnbull government is terminal. Let's put it out of our misery.
George Harley
Mount Isa
Letters commenting on election issues must bear the name and full address of the writer(s). Responsibility for election comment in this issue is accepted by North West Star editor Derek Barry, 112 Camooweal Street, Mount Isa, Qld. Writers should disclose any alliance with political or community organisations and include their telephone number for verification. Election candidates should declare themselves as such when submitting letters.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
