June 7, 2013
Kingaroy grazier John Bjelke-Petersen has put up his hand to stand for Clive Palmer’s United Party at the September Federal election.
Mr Bjelke-Petersen, who announced on Wednesday he had quit the LNP because he was “disgusted” at the way the party had treated regional Queensland, will stand against the National Party’s Bruce Scott in the seat of Maranoa.
Mr Scott has represented Maranoa – which includes the southern end of the South Burnett – since 1990.
The announcement that Mr Bjelke-Petersen will represent the Palmer United Party (PUP) was made at a party function – complete with live music – held this morning at the Town Common Hall in Kingaroy.
PUP founder Clive Palmer took to the podium to the strains of “Hey True Blue” to break the news.
Mr Palmer said regional Australia had been left behind by the Federal Government.
“They really don’t care about this country, they don’t care about the people who live in it. They don’t care about what our future is,” he said.
“All they care about is being elected and that was never demonstrated more clearly when ‘Tony Gillard’ and ‘Julia Abbott’ both conspired together to get $60 million of taxpayer funds, not to fight each other, but to fight us.”
Mr Palmer said the two major parties were “scared stiff” of his party because people now “had a choice who to vote for”.
“If I am Prime Minister, the first day that I am elected I will be allocating $100 million or more to establish a 100-bed hospital here in Kingaroy. The current hospital was built during the Second World War. It’s overdue. If you look at the quality of care, it’s terrible, it’s disgraceful. The people in Canberra just don’t care about people going through that situation,” he said.
Mr Palmer said his party would also spend $50 million in Stanthorpe, $70 million in Warwick and $50 million in Roma to “give the people of this region the health facilities that they deserve”.
He said political courage was one of the rarest of commodities.
“You don’t find it with Tony Abbott. You don’t find it with Julia Gillard,” he said.
“Political courage means a person has the courage of their convictions to say what’s right in spite of the consequences, in spite of the loss.”
Mr Palmer said John Bjelke-Petersen had shown great political courage and had the admiration of people throughout the length and breadth of Australia, and had also served his community “in all sorts of activities” all his life.
Mr Bjelke-Petersen, who was welcomed to the podium with Redgum’s “Diamantina Drover”, said he had mixed feelings.
He was disappointed because he had lost faith in the people who were running the LNP and the leadership team of the Parliamentary party.
“My parents during more than half a century involvement played a major role in Country Party and National Party politics. During which time the State grew and developed and prospered as a whole,” he said.
Mr Bjelke-Petersen said he had made many great friends within the party and would always appreciate the support that they had given him personally but said “due to the direction and leadership within the party today” he had decided he could no longer be a part of it.
“They simply can’t be trusted,” he said.
“A State Government that said before the election that public servants’ jobs would be safe but after the election 13,000 or 14,000 people lost their jobs.
“A State Government that said no frontline services would be lost but after the opposite; we have people at the DPI in Kingaroy who were frontline people who lost their jobs.
“A State Government that cuts biosecurity services just when there is a disease outbreak and leaves people in limbo and out of pocket. I know producers who are out of pocket over half a million dollars.
“A State Government that cuts rail lines in rural Queensland to save some dollars. A State Government whose very own Transport Minister comments how much it costs to take people out to western Queensland by rail and says ‘we might have to do a review into it’; yet this same State Government has no trouble in looking after themselves and putting a new building in place for themselves in the city.
“They’ve got their priorities wrong.”
Mr Bjelke-Petersen said that on a Federal level he could not see any policies that made him think it would get any better under either of the two main parties.
“I want to be part of a team that delivers back to rural and regional Queensland,” he said.
“Rural and regional Australia creates the majority of the wealth that drives this country.”
Mr Bjelke-Petersen said there was a time when people had to stand up and say “enough is enough”.
“We want and need a better deal for rural and regional Queensland,” he said.
“I support Clive’s polices to unite Australia and return the wealth back to the areas that created it.”
Mr Bjelke-Petersen said that if voters wanted “more of the same” they should vote for either of the major parties in September; but if they wanted a change, they should vote for the Palmer United Party.
Speaking after the meeting, Clive Palmer told southburnett.com.au that Bruce Scott had served Maranoa “for a long, long time”.
“It’s probably the time that most Queenslanders would be moving on to other things,” he said.
Mr Palmer said politicians should serve the community for “one or two terms” and then move on.
He said John Bjelke-Petersen was concerned about the future.
“He’s got a lot more to offer than someone in his mid-70s who may not be concerned about the future.”
- Related article: LNP Resignation ‘Sad’: Scott
