LNP chief not drawn on Adani

OPPOSITION Leader Deb Frecklington has declined to clarify her position on Adani during a visit to Townsville to announce the LNP’s new spokesman for North Queensland.

Ms Frecklington said last week the LNP was reviewing its policies after its election loss and the party’s support for Adani was being reconsidered.

When asked yesterday if the LNP would dump its support for Adani’s Carmichael mine, Ms Frecklington declined to answer. She did say a proposed $ 1 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan was “dead and buried and gone”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said during the campaign she would veto the federal loan and made good on that promise in her first official act.

Ms Frecklington said Adani needed to “get on and get this mine going”.

“Here in North Queensland, like in ( all) regional Queensland, we need the jobs,” she said. “We all know that Palaszczuk flip- flopped through the election, but I can tell you each and every time I came to Townsville … people are telling me they need jobs.”

Ms Frecklington has named Burdekin MP Dale Last as LNP spokesman for North Queensland.

“We have in the Palaszczuk Labor Government a city- centric Cabinet. What you have with the LNP is shadow Cabinet members who are spread across the state,” she said.

Ms Frecklington said Ms Palaszczuk had given the North a “massive smack in the face” by axing the position of Minister Assisting the Premier on North Queensland.

She also weighed in on the suspension from the LNP of Richmond Mayor John Wharton and former Herbert MP Peter Lindsay after they criticised the party’s election performance, calling it an internal matter. “The one thing I will say about the LNP is … unlike the Labor Party we don’t want to air our grievances in public,” she said.

State Development Minister Cameron Dick, also in the city yesterday, called on Ms Frecklington to “apologise for sacking public servants” when the LNP was last in government.