The Palaszczuk Government has been caught out trying a $1 billion con job on Queenslanders with dodgy business case calculations for its controversial Cross River Rail project.
Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said Annastacia Palaszczuk had already been exposed for planning six new secret taxes to pay for the rail project, and had now been caught out grossly overstating the project’s benefits.
“The Premier and her incompetent Infrastructure Minister Jackie Trad have effectively destroyed the credibility of their Cross River Rail business case by rigging the calculations to hide the need to cut costs by $1 billion,” Mr Nicholls said.
“This is the same old Labor - fiscally incompetent and economically reckless with taxpayers money.
“First they released a five-page report that made no mention of slugging Queenslanders with six secret taxes to pay for Cross River Rail.
“Now they’ve been caught out grossly overstating the benefits of a project that is marginal at best under the standards set by their own experts at Building Queensland.
“Put simply, if this project costs more to build than Labor is telling us then, as always, Queenslanders will end up footing the bill for Labor’s economic incompetence.
“Even public transport advocate group ‘Rail Back on Track’ have admitted the Cross River Rail project has become a train wreck under the Palaszczuk Government and Jackie Trad.”
Deb Frecklington, Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Infrastructure Minister said Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad had been telling Queenslanders Cross River Rail would deliver a 1:1.21 cost benefit ratio but that isn’t the case.
“Labor has been saying for every dollar invested in the project, it would generate $1.21 in benefits – but after questions from media, they’re now changing their story,” she said.
“This is a Government that’s making it up as it goes along, and that’s just not good enough when they’re talking about spending almost $10 billion of taxpayers money to build, operate and maintain Cross River Rail.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to come clean with Queenslanders about the costs and benefits of Cross River Rail, instead of conducting an endless con job.”
