DOOR SLAMS ON BUSINESS

MILLIONS of dollars have been spent as companies have shown a series of governments how The Spit and Broadwater can become an economic driver.

It was not for want of encouragement. Governments dangled the carrot and even named a preferred proponent for development of an integrated casino and resort.

But all of that was sunk yesterday by the Palaszczuk Government, leaving a city to wonder what message has been sent to the people with vision and financial backing who want to do business in Queensland.

When the Commonwealth Games are over, where are the big projects to keep the economy humming?

This Government should not kid itself. The Gold Coast has been the engine room for the state economy and even if Labor holds no seats here, the city has saved its skin many times.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement yesterday has hurled us back exactly 11 years. The parallels are remarkable. In August 2006 the Beattie Labor government, having previously backed a Broadwater cruise ship terminal, lost its bottle. With an election on the way, the plan was scuttled.

Now, another election is in the wind and the Palaszczuk Labor Government has blinked in a stare-down with a vocal anti-Spit development lobby that has been shown time and again not to have the support of a majority of Gold Coast residents and businesses. The Government’s actions demonstrate this is a political decision. It certainly makes no economic sense.

Having enraged the green vote, One Nation and many of its own supporters who were opposed to the Adani coal mine in the Galilee Basin, the Government needed a sacrificial lamb. With no Gold Coast seats, it thought it had nothing to lose in showing ASF the door and denying long-term economic certainty for the city, just to rebuild green credentials in crucial seats elsewhere.

Big mistake. The state’s economy will suffer and the rest of the world now wonders about doing business in Queensland.

The people who love this city and see its worth to the rest of the state would urge investors with big dreams to keep knocking. But while the Gold Coast is held hostage by a myopic government, we fear developers will think we’re closed for business.