January 29, 2015
Palmer United Senate leader Glenn Lazarus dropped into Kingaroy and Nanango on Thursday to throw his weight behind local party candidate Jason Ford at Saturday’s State election.
Senator Lazarus may be better known to many voters from his former career as a rugby league international.
The former Kangaroo, Bronco and NSW State of Origin player built a formidable reputation as a prop forward, so formidable in fact that he earned the nickname “the brick with eyes”.
He was elected to the Senate to represent Queensland at the 2013 election with his term officially beginning on July 1 last year.
Senator Lazarus said today that he, and fellow PUP senator Zhenya Wang, would work closely at a Federal level with any PUP MPs elected in Queensland on Saturday “to get the things done that Queenslanders want”.
For Kingaroy resident Jason Ford, the election campaign has been an opportunity to speak out against job losses under the LNP government.
“I have seen far too many of my friends and colleagues lose their livelihoods, pack up and leave town,” he said.
He also wants to improve educational outcomes.
“Vocational training should be affordable and accessible to everyone in the region,” he said.
PUP Queensland leader John Bjelke-Petersen, who is standing against Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney in the seat of Callide, said Saturday’s election would be “a defining moment in Queensland’s history”.
“Our children and grandchildren are going to find out if they have anything left to work with,” he said.
Mr Bjelke-Petersen accused the LNP of hypocrisy over their plan to lease assets.
“Jeff Seeney and Campbell Newman were saying before the last election about the Labor Party selling assets,” he said.
“In fact, Jeff Seeney said leasing assets was a sneaky way of selling assets. It’s just a load of crock.”
He said Treasurer Tim Nicholls was trying to frighten people about government debt – but the real figure was a lot less because it included about $30 billion in superannuation for public servants, which was accounted for, and local government debt of about $15 billion, which was guaranteed to be repaid.
Mr Bjelke-Petersen said Palmer United had stood 50 candidates across the State.
“We have a good team, a diverse team of people from different occupations and with different skills. They are not professional politicians,” he said.
He rejected claims that electing minor parties would cause chaos.
“It’s not going to be chaos; it’s going to be democracy,” he said.
I don’t think governments need to own power companies. Australians seem to pay more for electricity then anyone else in the developed world.