25 Jul Confirmed: Government led by the ear by Department of ‘Do Nothing’

Late into Wednesday night, as the Budget Estimates hearing was coming to a close, it was confirmed once and for all that the Government is led by Brisbane bureaucrats who are ideologically opposed to progress or development in North Queensland.

The Director General for the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water confirmed the Katter’s Australian Party Leaders and Member for Traeger’s assertion that “the Department is not there to enable regional development, rather it actively seeks to find reasons to oppose.

“I knew it all along, but it was finally confirmed”, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter said.

“The considerations made by the Department are such that it is fundamentally impossible to have any progress whatsoever in this state.”

“When the visionary Story bridge was built, the government of the day had the wherewithal to say ‘some people will have to forgo their rights in the interest of the greater good’ – and look at it now – a vital transport link for Brisbane, and on every postcard.

“It seems like we are living in a Queensland led by those who are more interested in appeasing the woke-brigade than having a vision for the state,” the KAP leader said.

Under questioning from the member for Traeger, the Minister for Regional Development, Manufacturing, and Water, Glenn Butcher, paid lip service to visionary projects such as HIPCO and Big Rocks Dam but fell short of promising tangible actions to see these come to fruition.

“The Minister talks the talk about these sorts of projects, but he either has no drive, or not enough power within his own department to make thing happen, and move from desktop study after desktop study, and into breaking ground and getting these projects moving,” Mr Katter said.

“If these projects had a benefit to the Brisbane focussed Olympics rort, or building a traffic tunnel in the South East, the Department would be bending over backwards to facilitate all the required processes and approvals; but because these are projects that would contribute true economic and community development in North Queensland, they refuse to cooperate.

“The Minister has never had control of the ideologs in his own Department, and because of that Queenslander are missing out on millions of dollars’ worth of economic activity every day, jobs, and thriving rural communities.

“It’s time that the Government grew up and led for a change and learned to drive the public service, not be beholden to them,” the KAP leader said.

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