Candidates returned to the hustings on Thursday with 48 hours to go before voters headed to the polls, though pre-polling was doing good business all day as many opt to get their vote in early.
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KAP state leader Robbie Katter was spruiking his energy policy saying an independent analyst has rated it as giving the greatest benefit to Queenslanders in savings.
He quoted energy analyst Hugh Grant from Bloomberg New Energy Finance who said the KAP policy means bills would be reduced by $500.
Mr Katter said electricity was a key enabler of economic activity and successive governments had driven up electricity prices by allowing their power businesses to overcharge households and businesses.
“We will ban the Optimised Replacement Cost valuation methodology used by Powerlink, Ergon and Energex to save customers $500 million to $1 billion a year and permanently put downward pressure on prices,” Mr Katter said.
“We will also remove the Competitive Neutrality Fee and unnecessary margins applied by Ergon to the calculation of regulated prices.”
READ MORE: Find out where to vote on Saturday
Mr Katter also noted the major parties have rarely been seen west of Toowoomba this campaign.
“Tim Nicholls has visited Western Queensland once and Annastacia Palaszczuk hasn’t been out at all during the campaign,” he said.
“That shows you how much they care about Western Queensland and the agriculture industry.”
LNP candidate Ron Bird said was also talking about electricity saying power bills were going through the roof under Labor.
“A Vote for Katter or Labor the answer is the same, Cost of living (will go) up,” Mr Bird said.
“Our plan will reduce your bills by up to $780 over three years.”
Labor candidate Danielle Slade was talking up her party’s achievements in government.
“Working together, Queenslanders have sold more than $70 billion worth of exports for the first time in our state’s history,” she said.
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“We have increased exports by 60% or more than $26 billion.”
She also said Queensland’s health budget has increased by $3 billion and employment figures were improving.
“Since our election in 2015, 134,000 jobs have been created across Queensland and the unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in four years,” she said.
Independent Craig Scriven said asked that if people voted for a minor party, could you believe that their time will actually be spent in this electorate?
One is a party leader (Robbie Katter) and with that rank, he must spend an amount of his time concentrating on other electorates,” Mr Scriven said.
“My first priority will be Traeger, and then the state. There'll be no deals with any party.”
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.
