NQ RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY-LEGITIMATE OR LABOR PR STUNT?

The Queensland Party Candidate for Cairns, D.J.Hunt has called on the NQ reconstruction office to take heed of their Reconstruction principles and fast track an alternate site for a Cairns hospital.

"Major General Mick Slater in his full page ad in the Cairns Post states that the reconstruction principles are ‘people first, recovery will be led locally, building a resilient Queensland and enhancing flood and disaster preparedness and mitigation measures’. ” said Mr Hunt.

“Are these just hollow words or are they committed to this. An alternate hospital puts people first, just ask the evacuated patients still stuck in Brisbane. Local people are screaming at the government we need an alternate hospital site. If we want a resilient Far North Queensland we need to ensure that our hospital is not taken out by the disaster. We have no option B, unlike the Health Minister who is able to take his family to a different hospital if the one nearest to him gets closed.”

Mr Hunt stated “Finally and most importantly there is no greater piece of critical infrastructure in our area that needs disaster preparedness and mitigation measures more than our hospital. Labor’s arguments on this issue are based on crossing your fingers and hoping for the best and whether or not you can buy a kebab nearby. The Queensland Party take it a lot more seriously than that and we urge people to sign our e-petition at http://bit.ly/eTjB6h.”

Mr Hunt stated “This will be the first test for the reconstruction authority to show they are fair dinkum about the role they have been given or if they are simply a Labor spin doctor media stunt to boost the Premiers popularity rating. On the flipside it will be interesting to see if the government will change its position if the reconstruction authority found we do need to find an alternate hospital site.”

    

“The people of Far North Queensland deserve to know whether or not the NQ reconstruction authority will follow the principles as set out by Major General Slater and send the message loud and clear to the government that they are wrong and an alternate hospital site needs to be acted on as a matter of urgency.”