Thousands of jobs under a bus to save Deputy Premier

beyond the one-month tenure of next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Instead of working constructively to make the $3 billion ASF development a reality, Annastacia Palaszczuk has sabotaged it.

She’s been revealed to have no vision for the Gold Coast while further tarnishing our state’s image as a safe and attractive place to invest.

ASF had been consulting with this government in supposed good faith for the past two years. After all, it was the Premier and her government that gifted the site at The Spit to the developers without a competitive process.

Labor began the process and encouraged ASF to invest millions of dollars progressing the project.

Now the Palaszczuk Government has taken the site away, unilaterally and without warning, ignoring their own community consultation process.

Make no mistake: this complete misfire of a decision has been orchestrated by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad and the Left of the Labor Party.

It’s not about jobs and the Gold Coast economy.

It’s about Trad ingratiating herself with the Greens’ supporters who threaten to throw her out of her inner-Brisbane seat.

To that end, Labor has killed a project which could have created 10,000-plus jobs, would have provided billions of dollars in investment and may now cost taxpayers millions in compensation to the developer.

Queensland is already viewed as a costly and unattractive place to do business under the Palaszczuk Government.

The ANZ-Property Council Survey lists Queensland Labor as the worst-performing government in Australia, while the Sensis Business Index reports more than 80 per cent of Queensland businesses believe Labor’s policies either work against them or have no positive impact on them.

According to a Queensland Resources Council survey, poor regulation and policy uncertainty are the biggest issues confronting the mining industry. Major project activity has stalled and engineering construction activity has almost halved in the last two years.

The evidence could not be clearer — Labor puts political self-interest ahead of community interest.

Labor just doesn’t get the Gold Coast.