Main issues

ELECTIONS are usually won or lost on three main issues.

The party’s history of debt and deficit.

The party’s track record on creating job opportunities and reducing unemployment, and

the voter’s opinion on the local member’s contribution to the local community.

So I would like to refer readers to some of the recent statistics relating to the three primary issues which are still fresh in our memories.

Item (a): Prior to March 2012, we had 14 of an ALP government of which Kerry Shine held a senior ministerial portfolio. They went into the term with little or no debt and after 14 years, left us with a debt of just more than $80 billion. The accounts were in such a shocking state that it took six months for independent auditors to sort out the mess. This includes the $400 million wasted on the Traveston Dam fiasco and the $200 million water pipeline from Wivenhoe which we do not use etc. Kerry was an integral part of the process to this catastrophic waste.

Item (b): Since the 2015 election, the Palaszczuk government has grossly inflated the public service again. That’s all, period. That’s the ALP’s standard solution to unemployment – just hire more public servants, problem solved.

Item (c): This has become a touchy subject in Toowoomba North in particular. Firstly, about Highfields State School. The facts are that the ALP did arrange the purchase of the land, but that’s all and with no plan to do any more.

It was the LNP that produced the funds and built the school and that’s a recorded fact. Check the press releases.

Then there is the Range Crossing. It is an in insult to our intelligence to suggest that the ALP (or Kerry) had any part of securing this project. Once again, check the press releases, together with the photos in the local press of the official announcements. Also remember Bill Shorten voted against the bypass in Federal Parliament.

By the way, didn’t the ALP promise to reduce debt and lower electricity prices last election? — GARY VARIDEL, Anzac Ave, Toowoomba