CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
As the Queensland Labor Government vows to keep public transport fares at 50 cents permanently, the LNP Opposition has been forced to go against every fibre of their political ideology and somewhat support this wildly popular policy.
LNP leader David Crisafulli has this week committed to the 50 cents fares… For the first term of government… if they win in October.
As conditional as this show of support is, the LNP’s announcement comes as a bizarre political compromise for a conservative political party that has basically been promised a State Election win by the favourable media coverage coming out of the Sydney newsrooms for Channel Nine, NewsCorp and 7.
It’s a sign that this October election is not a sure thing, no matter how much the Courier Mail and Sky News screech about the exaggerated rates of youth crime across Queensland.
With nothing to lose, and no friends to be made, the Queensland Premier appears to be making ground by tackling the issues that voters are actually raising with their elected officials. Namely, the cost-of-living crisis.
The Labor Government have gone shoulder to the wheel providing economic relief for Queenslanders, from the 50 cents fares, to a 20% decrease to car rego, to power bill subsidies.
It’s the type of politics that the LNP loathes, as a political party that thinks poverty is nothing more than a personal choice.
However, that is not to say that Crisafulli and his party of fundamental Christian Duttonites don’t have their own plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
And the first cab off the rank will be repealing the Queensland Royalties Tax, on the billionaire multinational resource corporations that had previously enjoyed two tax-free decades.
Crisafulli has previously described the royalty tax as “a betrayal of Queensland families and those investing in our state” and the LNP have indicated it will be the first aspect of the current Labor government’s legacy to be repealed.
It is not yet certain how the LNP thinks that allowing foreign corporations the luxury of pillaging Queensland earth for billions of dollars without paying will help everyday Queenslanders, but obviously less taxes is a good thing!
