Shorten flies last bit, with promise of cash
BILL Shorten flew into Cairns on a Qantas passenger plane after an executive decision to end his big red bus tour in Townsville – but he came bearing gifts.
The Opposition Leader arrived on yesterday’s 12.15pm Qantas flight from Townsville to the Cairns Airport, where a small group of anti-Adani protesters was keeping a relatively low profile in the terminal.
They did not get a chance to berate the prospective prime minister after he was quietly escorted through a back door by federal police.
Mr Shorten explained the decision to terminate the Bill’s Bus tour four-and-a-half hours away in Townsville was a simple matter of logistics.
“When you drive a bus 2000km – to be fair another man drove the bus – when you go in a bus for 2000km and you’ve got nine days, we could get as far as Townsville,” he said.
“But I wasn’t going to let distance stop me from coming to Cairns.”
Mr Shorten said he had good news for Cairns with the announcement of 100 new full- time Department of Human Services jobs in Cairns if Labor was elected to government.
The $7.2 million package would dramatically increase the number of Centrelink and Medicare call centre staff based in the Far North.
Mr Shorten said the announcement was the result of extensive lobbying by Labor candidate for Leichhardt Elida Faith – who he called “action woman” – and the Advance Cairns Convoy to Canberra, which brought more than 50 Far North industry leaders to the nation’s capital in October.
“They’re a good group of businesspeople,” he said.
“At the end of the day when I met with them, they weren’t interested in LNP or Labor, they just wanted action for their community.
“I listened, we’re listening and Labor listens.”
He threw a glancing blow to the Coalition’s incumbent Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, saying Ms Faith would be a “shot in the arm” for the region.
“Sometimes you can be in one job for too long,” he said.
“You get tired and you get past it.”