Consensus on campus
Debate features ‘fiery moments’ but candidates agree on one issue
A CLASH of personalities played out on stage as five of Leichhardt’s candidates went head-to-head in debate, but at least one issue had consensus.
There were fiery moments at the Reef Hotel Casino debate as Katter’s Australian Party candidate Rod Jensen accused his competition of dishing up the political equivalent of a prepackaged “Coles cake” to constituents.
He said new thinking was required, spit-balling an idea to allow couples to “split wages” so one parent could stay home and raise children without being taxed to the breadline.
Daniel Hannagan explained a United Australia Party (UAP) plan to give regional Australians a 20 per cent tax break, and apply a 15 per cent tax on iron ore exports to cut debt and boost domestic processing.
The Greens’ Phillip Musumeci panned the latter proposal, which he labelled “unfair” due to the UAP’s association with Clive Palmer.
The only subject all candidates agreed upon was building a new CQUniversity campus in the Cairns CBD.
Labor is the only party so far to commit $50m to a project expected to inject $500m into the Far North economy over the next decade.
The project would double the university’s students from 2000 to 4000 in Cairns and creating 330 construction jobs in the short-term.
Labor candidate Elida Faith has locked down a guarantee on her side of the fence, but the
Coalition’s incumbent Warren Entsch hinted bipartisanship could be on the way.
“At the time when (Labor) announced it, I said thank you very much – it makes my job a lot easier,” he said.
“It is an outstanding project, it has been on the top of the list … let’s just see how we go.”
Ms Faith had an announcement of her own on Wednesday with opposition industry and innovation spokesman Ed Husic in town to name Cairns as a site of one of the 50 proposed urgent care clinics.
Ms Faith stopped short of committing to fund the 80 commonwealth-subsidised medical student places required for the Cairns University Hospital to be viable.
However, she said Labor’s plan to plug skills shortages with 20,000 new university places – and fee-free TAFE courses in priority areas – would help fill gaps across the board.
“Having an additional 20,000 places at uni will help our health and education sectors, manufacturing et cetera,” Ms Faith said.