The Brisbane Times reports (18.3.16) on moves by crossbench MPs to force the state government to focus more of its planned infrastructure spending on northern and regional parts of Queensland. The Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, has responded saying the government won’t allow planning and development to be used for “political grandstanding”.
‘A group of north Queensland crossbenchers are shooting themselves in the foot by threatening to hold the government’s infrastructure plan to ransom, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad says.
‘Labor defector Rob Pyne and the state’s two Katter party MPs, Rob Katter and Shane Knuth, will on Friday deliver a letter to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk calling on her to rewrite the $35 billion plan to provide more for the state’s north or risk having it blocked in the state’s hung parliament.
‘Ms Trad stopped short of saying whether the blockade would be enough for Ms Palaszczuk to make good on her threat to call an early election if anyone stood in the way of her government’s jobs-creating agenda.’