View the recording of this speech here.
Record of Proceedings, 7 March 2024
Adjournment: Ipswich West Electorate, By-Election; Fire Ants
Voters in Ipswich West have a chance to send this Labor government of chaos and crisis a message in the Ipswich West by-election. LNP candidate Darren Zanow, a champion of the Ipswich community, has been delivering for Ipswich for years in his business, where he successfully employed many people, and in the community as president of the Ipswich Show Society, where he managed to get millions of dollars of grants for the Ipswich Show Society. Contrast this with the Labor government, which has taken Ipswich for granted for years. It has overseen 60 per cent ramping at Ipswich Hospital. We have seen tragic deaths there recently, including that of Wayne Irving from the Scenic Rim electorate. A new ED is announced in Ipswich, but it will be at capacity by the time it is built. Labor has failed Ipswich for years and taken it for granted.
Labor failed for years to fix the Mount Crosby interchange on the Warrego Highway and now we are going to have traffic lights on the Bremer bridge to manage heavy vehicle movements across that bridge, probably owing to the lack of maintenance on that bridge because there is a $5 billion backlog on repairs on state-owned roads. Labor has failed to fix the Amberley interchange for a generation. Even after the coalition federal government put $170 million on the table to fix the Amberley interchange back in 2018, Labor MP Jim Madden was completely incapable of delivering for his community in Ipswich West. The Labor government in Brisbane took it off the table just as the coalition in Canberra was giving it funding.
It is a disgrace—an absolute disgrace—and the people of Ipswich West need to send this government a message that enough is enough and they will not be taken for granted any longer. Under this Labor government, infrastructure is crumbling and services are failing Ipswich. It is clear that the only message Labor hears is at the ballot box, so Ipswich West voters should send Labor a message that enough is enough and send Darren Zanow here to the parliament to really stand up for the people of Ipswich West.
Fire ants are a massive security risk, and this government has failed completely in its job to eradicate the ants. They continue spreading despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent, yet there is still no sign of eradication. People in the Scenic Rim electorate have been on the front line of this battle for years and years, and they are telling me that the program needs to change because it is failing. We all know that landholders look after their land better than any other person, so the government should be supplying, utilising funding from the program, bait to residents and landholders and especially farmers, turf growers and larger lot holders so that they can treat the ants themselves. I am not talking about one-kilogram bags; they need to be supplied in bulk quantities so that these people can get on the front foot when they have fire ant outbreaks on their properties. The way the program is doing it at the moment is simply not working to contain these outbreaks. They are into New South Wales and they are going to continue spreading. The government needs to also work with the New South Wales government to ensure that turf and hay growers can send their produce across the border in an efficient way.