LNP plan for Queensland
Throughout 2018, the LNP fought hard to make a positive difference. We forced the Palaszczuk Labor Government into introducing LNP policies good for Queensland.
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Labor has been pressured into adopting our policies on real-time fuel price monitoring, swimming lessons for kids, the Sunshine Coast rail duplication and crucial M1 funding. We forced Labor to hold a Parliamentary inquiry into toll road operations because drivers deserve a better deal.
We pressured them to implement tougher laws on violent sex offenders to make our communities safer. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to stop many of Annastacia Palaszczuk's most damaging policies.
The devastating Vegetation Management Laws rammed through by Labor were a hammerblow to regional Queensland, much of which is still battling drought.
Labor slugged Queenslanders with five new taxes, which ripped $2.2 billion out the economy. They closed agricultural colleges and shut down regional maternity services.
Queensland now has the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
I promise Queenslanders everywhere that the LNP will continue to hold this arrogant and incompetent Labor Government to account in 2019.
I want the LNP to lead this state because our plan for Queensland will make a positive difference to people's lives.
I am determined to end the growing divide between the southeast and regional Queensland.
A future LNP Government will deliver desperately-needed infrastructure projects like roads and dams - creating new jobs in our cities and the bush. Our focus will be on improving health and education services - not tearing down hospital signs and there will be no new taxes under the LNP.
In 2019 I will continue to lay out more of my plan to ensure that Queensland's best days are ahead of us - and not behind us.
Deb Frecklington, LNP Leader
Senator Stoker responds
I refer to Mr Agnew's letter, published NWS Thursday Jan 16.
Mr Agnew suggests I have refused to answer his questions about the need for religious liberty in Australia.
My records indicate he has never contacted me about this issue, and I have never refused to engage with the community on it.
I seize the opportunity to help Australians understand this difficult and important subject. The right to believe, or not believe, is a natural right of human beings linked to freedom of thought.
Without it, we are not truly free.
When an Archbishop has been hauled before a discrimination tribunal for expressing that church's support for traditional marriage, when employees have lost jobs for expressing similar opinions, and when public school teachers face disciplinary action for sharing with a private social media network a traditional view of family derived from faith, there is a problem to be addressed.
These are not hypothetical examples.
They are real, and they are the tip of the iceberg. No one is asking for religious people to have the right to prioritise their beliefs over the needs of others. Far from it.
Existing discrimination acts protecting people on the basis of their sex, gender identity, sexual preference, race and more, are being used by activists to shut down, silence and discriminate against people of faith.
A religious freedom act is only an effort to level the playing field.
The reference to religion in the Australian Constitution is a bar on the establishment of a state religion, or the imposition of a religious requirement to hold a public office.
It is not a blanket right of freedom of religion and does not prevent a person from being discriminated against on that basis - or for their desire not to have a religious belief. All adult Australians should be able to live according to their chosen beliefs - whether about faith, sexuality, or anything else so long as it doesn't harm others.
Senator for Qld Amanda Stoker