The Leader of The Queensland Party, Aidan McLindon, today cited massive price increases by the recently privatised QR National as evidence that the State Government’s privatisation plan had sold Queensland out.
“If the state’s rail network was still publicly owned, the State Government could manage transport and logistics infrastructure strategically to assist Queensland recover. This means that it could absorb some of the cost of finding alternate transport for flood and cyclone affected areas.”
“However, as QR National is now a private enterprise it is not surprising that freight costs into regional areas like Cairns have gone up by 48%.”
“I now call on the State Government, as the majority shareholder, to intervene so that those businesses suffering in Cairns are not hit with a double whammy of massive transport cost increases and delayed delivery timeframes. The State Government should either pressure the board to lower costs, or it should use its own revenue from QR National profits to subsidise transport costs in flood and cyclone affected areas for the greater good of Queensland’s recovery.”
“On top of the redundancies offered to rail workers last week, this price increase does not cover the State Government’s privatisation policy in glory. The unfortunate reality is, however, that the LNP’s philosophy and platform is more pro-privatisation the Labor Party’s position.”
“The Queensland Party is the only party represented in State Parliament that actually has a platform to put Queensland first.”
No comments:
Post a Comment