LNP candidate’s funding call welcomed
I welcome calls by Frank Beveridge, the LNP candidate for Kennedy, for the Flinders Highway between Mount Isa and Townsville to be funded under the Federal Government’s Roads of Strategic Importance (ROSI) program.
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As Mr Beveridge rightly pointed out in a North West Star article last month (“Flinders Hwy crucial”, November 17), for those regional communities particularly in drought areas across central North West Queensland, money that is earmarked for regional roads will provide a life line.
The ROSI program aligns with the Inland Queensland Roads Action Plan (IQ-RAP) advocacy objectives of securing more long term funding programs for strategic road networks across inland Queensland.
We would welcome a commitment from the Federal LNP to the priorities that are identified in the Inland Queensland Road Network Strategy.
As we all know, rural and regional Queensland is the economic powerhouse of this state.
But to ensure that situation continues we need more investment in infrastructure from state and federal governments.
Cr Rick Britton
Chair IQ-RAP Working Group
Mayor of Boulia Shire Council
Was this another Bob Katter dummy spit?
Did Bob Katter really walk out during Dr Kerryn Phelps’ (the new member for Wentworth) first speech in Parliament when she mentioned LGBQT issues?
If so he achieved a superb parliamentary first, being an old fossil and acting like a child simultaneously.
George Harley
Mount Isa
Water price hikes hurt Queenslanders
Queensland’s government-owned water utility corporations have pocketed more than $347 million from customers under Labor’s watch on the back of recent price hikes.
The Queensland Audit Office’s 2017-18 report showed the dividends paid by state-owned water companies to the government have surged by 490 per cent in just one year.
This was accompanied by a 62 per cent increase in profits after dividend payments since 2016.
It’s a clear case of the Labor Government profiting from water when Queenslanders continue to battle the rising cost of living.
We have already seen Southeast Queenslanders slugged with water price increases between $50 and $90 over the next three years.
When it comes to rural water, the Queensland Competition Authority review into irrigation water prices is looking at going the same way for regional Queensland customers, with early estimates of significant price blowouts in certain schemes.
Labor’s inclusion of dam safety and flood mitigation costs in the referral notice to the QCA will see these costs directly passed onto irrigating farmers through significant price hikes for water.
All this whilst SunWater remains the main cash cow for the government, making up 88 per cent of the $224.7 million in dividends paid to the state’s coffers over the past three years.
All we are seeing from this Labor Government are water price increases being forced onto Queenslanders while profits continue to surge.
The LNP believes our water utilities should not be used as cash cows.
Instead of profiting from surging water prices, the government should give back to Queenslanders through lower water costs.
Dale Last
LNP Shadow Minister for Natural Resources
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.
