Harper’s tall tales

AARON Harper ( TB letters 24/ 4) follows a familiar Labor line of telling whatever mistruth is needed to scare voters, as Labor perfected with the untrue “Mediscare” campaign at the last federal election.

Before he puts pen to paper, Mr Harper should do some research rather than follow the lies of the Labor propaganda machine, and stop playing the petty party politics he accuses others of doing.

On the Port, no formal application has yet been made to the Federal Government, and the business case has only just been presented in the last week or so. And the Port is, after all, a profit- making business of the Queensland Government which last year paid a dividend of some $ 15 million to the State Government to help prop up its budget.

Tax payers may well ask why their money is being given to a profit- making business of the Queensland Government.

In addition, some proper research by Mr Harper would demonstrate some truths which are unpalatable to the Queensland Labor ment. These facts are:

Fact: The Queensland Government last week rejected the $ 150 million the Federal Government put on the table for the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor. This is despite outcries from the local business community which knows this project is the key enabler to expanding transport capacity in Northern Australia.

Fact: There is only one government which has sold Queensland assets, including Queensland Rail and the Port Govern- of Brisbane, and that is Bligh Labor Government.

Fact: The Australian Government has already committed more than $ 325 million to the Townsville region under the City Deal.

Fact: The Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility has not had one single application for funding from the Queensland Government.

In fact, the Queensland Labor Government seems intent on making NAIF fail for purely political purposes thus denying Northerners $ 5 the billion in available funding.

As an elected official, Mr Harper would do well to check his facts before trying to mislead the Townsville public.

All people in Townsville, not just LNP supporters, choke on their cornflakes every morning when they hear a rash of promises from Mr Shorten and the Labor cabal in Townsville who commit money they don’t have and make promises that history has shown they will never keep. IAN MACDONALD, Queensland Senator.