The Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch has come out swinging at the State Government’s outrageous backflip on moving sections of the public sector to Cairns as promised.
“For the State Government to come out and back peddle on their commitment to relocate public servants and Government Departments to this city is yet another example of the State Government’s appalling lack of action for this region.
“Deputy Premier Paul Lucas says the public servants can’t be uprooted as they ‘have families, friends, school commitments and partners’. What about the families of FNQ? We have been starved of Government support for the past few years. It’s not just the social aspects that will be lost, it will be their businesses, their homes and their jobs. Surely to goodness a little social inconvenience through relocation is infinitely better than the destruction of the economic base of a community.
“We have an urgent need for Government intervention with over 400 businesses having closed their doors in this region in the past two years, plus the highest unemployment in the country. Enough is enough, Paul Lucas and Anna Bligh need to step up to the plate and deliver on what they had promised and Member for Cairns Desley Boyle who has been advocating for this needs to hold her own Government to account.
“Desley Boyle needs to do what’s right by the people she represents and fight for this instead of towing the Labor Party line and supporting her superiors. This is not a time for Desley Boyle to back down on this, it is time for her to fight and tell Paul Lucas and Anna Bligh they have got it wrong and they need to deliver on the promises made.
“We have consistently featured as the city with the highest unemployment in the country. This decision will do nothing to alleviate this unenviable statistic,” Mr Entsch said.
Mr Entsch claims the people of the North will not put up with being left behind any longer.
“No wonder people are angry, the Local, State and Federal Governments are treating this region with such disdain, it’s disgraceful. If the State Labor Government wants to lose every seat in this region at the next election, then they’re going about it the right way,” he said.