Springboard to election
Plan part of Opposition’s government-ready stance
OPPOSITION Leader Lawrence Springborg was seemingly in campaign mode yesterday as he released a glossy-page economic plan document and spruiked his party’s readiness for a potential by-election.
Just months after voters booted the LNP from government in a crushing electoral defeat, Mr Springborg yesterday said his party was “government-ready” and suggested it was waiting to try and wrest power back in the event of a by-election, given the current minority government was “extremely precariously poised”.
“The take-out message from me to you today is that if that opportunity presents itself during the course of this term, or if it presents itself after the next state election, we are ready,” he told a Queensland Media Club lunch yesterday.
“We are government-ready, we are election-ready.”
The Opposition Leader also used his prepared address to defend the former governhave ment, insisting that “in critical portfolios” there were “no real, significant legacy issues which negatively defined the LNP government”.
Launching a glossy publication titled A Real Economic Plan that featured several pages specifically devoted to attacking Labor, Mr Springborg outlined the LNP’s new fiscal strategy.
The as-yet light-on-detail plan added manufacturing and services and knowledge-based industries to the former Newman government’s four pillars of the economy.
It states the Opposition’s plan to “use surpluses where appropriate to pay down debt and build infrastructure”, while also committing it to a “principle of no forced redundancies in the public service”.
The plan includes a commitment to achieving, “where prudent”, a surplus, and increasing the payroll tax threshold by $100,000 each year during the parliamentary term.
Mr Springborg rejected suggestions his plan was similar to the fiscal strategy Labor presented to voters.
He also did not rule out privatisation in the future if voters become “comfortable” with the idea.
“I think it is also fair to say that everyone will be watching with interest what happens in NSW in the future,” he said.
“But I don’t see this returning to the agenda unless Queenslanders are comfortable with it.”
Treasurer Curtis Pitt said the LNP’s plan appeared to “cling” to sacking government workers and selling assets.
“It appears to be a rehash of old policies and nothing new,” he said.