Tempers flare as Morrison sets ultimatum on plans

Speaking at an Advance Cairns breakfast, Mr Morrison said Nullinga Dam, extending the National Highway and Cairns marine precinct upgrades could not happen without co-operation.

“I’ll be demanding that the Queensland Government turn up and stop playing politics, and actually put their plans on the table,” he told an Advance Cairns business breakfast.

The ultimatum did not sit well with Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey, who called for Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch to resign.

More than 100 people packed into the Shangri-La Hotel’s Trinity Room to hear the new PM’s plans for Far North Queensland.

The blame game was as prominent under Mr Morrison as it was under Mr Turnbull.

“They’re the ones that have to open the door to enable us to come and invest,” he said.

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch said Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey had ignored his requests for written confirmation the State Government wanted the Bruce Hwy extended from Woree to Smithfield.

The theme was the same for his common user marine maintenance facility dream and water security projects.

Mr Bailey suggested a letter from a backbencher was not worth much.

“I am yet to receive a single phone call from any of Mr Morrison’s new team of ministers since their bitter leadership implosion,” he said.

“Instead of picking up the phone to talk to his own Federal Minister, long-time MP Mr Entsch strangely suggests he needs me to write to his own Deputy Prime Minister to plead the case for extending the National Highway.

“If Mr Entsch has given up on his job as the Far North Queensland federal MP he should resign so somebody else will.”

State Development Minister Cameron Dick did not directly respond to questions about the status of a $100,000 study into common user marine maintenance facility sites.

However, he pointed to the Federal Government’s chaindragging on approving the $120 million Trinity Inlet dredging project as evidence of bureaucratic lethargy.

“The State and Commonwealth environmental impact statements started at the same time,” he said.

The State Government has still not made a single application to the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.