This month, I thought I’d share the following excerpt from the Leader of the Opposition, David Crisafulli’s budget reply speech:
The best part of my job is listening to the stories of people right across our great state. It’s an indescribable honour when Queenslanders trust you with their personal stories – when they trust you to fight for them.
I’ve placed a priority on getting away from George Street to listen to Queenslanders in their homes and in their communities, to talk about the issues impacting them. Right now, more than ever, Queenslanders need to be able to trust the government to provide a pathway out of the chaos and crisis that is enveloping this state.
Queenslanders are prepared to give a government a break and understand that sometimes circumstances conspire to impact these factors. But Queenslanders won’t be taken for mugs, they don’t want to hear an excuse repeatedly. They don’t want their government to blame everyone other than themselves. They don’t want to see a government throw its arms in the air and say it’s not possible to run things on-time and on-budget.
It is simple. Promises made must be promises kept. If promises can’t be kept, don’t make them. I would like to believe the promises made by this government, unfortunately, the record proves we can’t.
Overwhelmingly, Queenslanders believe this government is heading in the wrong direction. The chaos and crisis is sapping Queenslanders’ confidence that this government can be trusted to lead us through the challenges we face today.
For example, Queenslanders don’t trust the Palaszczuk Government to fix the Queensland Youth Crime Crisis.
They don’t trust them to fix the Queensland Housing Crisis.
They don’t trust them to fix the Queensland Health Crisis.
To have any hope of fixing a problem, you must admit you have one in the first place and the premier and her government have shown neither the insight nor the inclination to offer this admission.
The Palaszczuk Government cares more about big flashy announcements than actually delivering the solutions Queenslanders need and deserve. Nowhere has trust in this government been eroded more than in health.
The government went to the last election promising to keep us safe. On this basic commitment, they have failed.
After nearly a decade in power, Queensland’s health system under the Palaszczuk Government is broken, in dire need of repair. The glue that keeps this broken system together is the incredible doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. It is our health professionals and patients who bear the burden of this broken system.
While the minister tries to shift blame to governments a decade in the past, it is the call centre operator who must explain to a father there are no ambulances available to come to the aid of his daughter who is suffering an asthma attack.
Throughout the Queensland Health Crisis, I have heard this question more than once – where is the premier? The premier has been caught up in the glitz and glamour of the job, while patients wait at the end of a phone line for an overworked ambulance officer who never comes.
I spoke earlier of trust and of the government’s inability to deliver what they promised. Nowhere is it truer than in health.
The satellite hospitals that were announced before the last election were deliberately misleading.
While they will provide important medical services, they aren’t what was promised – hospitals!
It’s not just the opposition who say this, senior Queensland health officials say this.
They don’t have overnight beds. They’re not open 24 hours. They don’t have an emergency department.
Call them what they are and focus on delivering these missing services at the nearby hospitals that are bursting at the seams.
This is a failure to deliver.
The premier herself promised these satellite hospitals would be open in May this year – all seven of them. How many are open right now? None. This is a failure to deliver.
They are more than $110 million over-budget. That’s $110 million that can’t be spent reducing the surgery waiting lists. This is a failure to deliver.
As I travel around the state, Queenslanders are telling me they do not trust this government to solve Queensland’s Youth Crime Crisis.
After reading this budget, you can’t blame them. All we have here is more of the same.
Again, it’s the men and women on the frontline that are the only thing holding a broken system together and so today I acknowledge the hard work being done by the Queensland Police Service. It’s been a tough time for them of late. Some of them have made the ultimate sacrifice for us. I say to those police officers – Queensland thanks you for your service. Contrary to the protests of the minister and as I indicated earlier, the reality is that the thin blue line is getting even thinner. This week it has been revealed that there are 72 fewer full-time equivalent, front line officers than at the time of the last election. I’ll repeat that, 72 fewer full-time equivalent frontline police officers. This in the middle of a youth crime crisis.
We must restore the hope of Queenslanders.
Hope this government has trashed.
I say to Queenslanders, we will continue to earn your trust back in opposition and if elected, we will restore your trust in government. By restoring that trust we will end the chaos and crisis the Palaszczuk Government has inflicted on Queensland.
In just under 500 days Queenslanders will have a choice to make – real delivery over announcements, stability over chaos.
Hope over fear.
For a copy of the full speech, which includes more of our commitments, please email me at Glass.House@parliament.qld.gov.au
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