March 11, 2014
The Electrical Trades Union has slammed Treasurer Tim Nicholls’ planned community consultations over State Government debt as a “tour de spin”.
Earlier this month. Mr Nicholls announced that the government would be undertaking “an unprecedented level of community consultation” about the choices it faced.
“Queenslanders will be asked to tell us their priorities for reducing the debt and deficits we inherited from the previous Labor Government, together with their priorities for the future,” Mr Nichols said.
But the ETU said today that “talking to hand-picked mates” doesn’t constitute consultation.
The union claimed Mr Nicholls was holding “closed door meetings in regional areas” which proved he was not “serious about listening to real people”.
ETU State Secretary Peter Simpson said the Treasurer was only interested in talking to those people who agreed with the LNP’s asset sales agenda.
“This is all about spin over substance; I can see it now, Nicholls on the podium talking to LNP hacks about how poor the State’s finances are complete with scary graphs and mindless nodding,” Mr Simpson said.
“And then straight out of the Thatcher doctrines, he will say: ‘There is no alternative! We must sell assets’.
“The crowd erupts when they realise this is for them, an insider giving them a heads up – get in early and you’ll make a motza – (and) after a bit of back slapping, he’s gone like a thief in the night.
“This is secretive backdoor politics. There is no information on the government website. There is nowhere for real people to register their interests.
“It can only lead to the assumption they don’t want to hear from real people who have been lied to and ripped off by the LNP’s asset sales agenda.
“Instead, these are straight out of the PR handbook. Present the worst case scenarios with silver linings to the handpicked ‘local leaders’ and get them to be your champions on the toxic issue.
“Let’s not forget the LNP are embedding PR consultants in the Department of Treasury to sell its asset sales agenda. PR firm Phillips Group is understood to be on a $20,000-a-month retainer and consultants can charge up to $280 an hour.
“We now know where this is going, to sell the unsellable.”
Mr Simpson took aim at the LNP’s economic understanding of debt.
“The government trots out a debt amount of $80 billion stating we are paying $450,000 per hour in interest payments.
“What they don’t tell you is the government earns $6 million per hour, not a bad debt ratio.”
- Related article: How Would You Raise $80 billion?
