Labor's secret plan to slug Queensland families with higher car registration fees to fund Cross River Rail has been exposed as it's hidden business case detailed the true cost of the project was billions of dollars more than previously revealed.
Acting Opposition Leader and Shadow Infrastructure Minister Deb Frecklington said reports revealed the rail project total cost was close to $10 billion, not the $5.4 billion alleged by Labor.
“Far more alarming is that Annastacia Palaszczuk and her Cabinet saw fit to endorse a business plan that involved raising car rego for all Queenslanders to pay for the ill-conceived project,” Ms Frecklington said.
“What was a $4 billion black hole for the Palaszczuk Government's Cross River Rail project when it cost $5.4 billion is now closer to $8 billion,” Ms Frecklington said.
“Why did Labor hide the plan for Queensland motorists to fund this project’s fiscal black hole when it released a heavily edited version of the business case two ago?
“Labor's plan to hit every Queenslander in the hip pocket every time they paid their car registration has now been exposed and Labor has immediately gone in damage control.
“The secret business case reveals Labor planned to raise as much as $1.2 billion from rego hikes for all Queensland car owners, meaning even those who may never use the transport network would be paying for it.
“No-one should can believe Labor when it now says it’s ruling out the rego hike only after it was caught out – when less than two days ago it was clearly on the cards in the Palaszczuk Government's hidden business plan for Cross River Rail.
“If it was never going to happen, why was it contained in the business case released by the Palaszczuk Government 48 hours ago? Why didn't the Premier and her Infrastructure Minister rule it out then?”
Ms Frecklington said Labor had form in ruling controversial policies out, only to spring them on Queenslanders at the last minute including breaking its election promise of no new taxes and charges.
“Yet again Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad haven't been honest with Queenslanders,” she said.
“We saw it when Labor pushed through compulsory preferential voting, when they wouldn't release the State Actuary's advice on their superannuation raid and now we're seeing Labor hiding the real facts about how Cross River Rail will be funded.
“The Palaszczuk Labor Government needs to come clean and tell Queenslanders who's going to pay for Cross River Rail. What other sneaky taxes and charges is the Premier planning to introduce hike to cover for her Labor government's budget blow outs?”
