The LNP Opposition has today called on Annastacia Palaszczuk to sack her incompetent Transport Minister after his abysmal performance amid the ongoing Queensland Rail crisis.
Deputy Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said the buck stopped with Minister Hinchliffe who finally emerged this morning in a train-wreck interview, admitting he knew about major staff shortages on Thursday but didn’t do anything about it.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to show some strong leadership and either sack Stirling Hinchliffe or accept his resignation,” Ms Frecklington said.
“As the Minister responsible, he should have been on the front foot talking to Queenslanders, working around the clock to get the matter resolved – instead he was the invisible man.
“It’s extraordinary that Mr Hinchliffe thought it was more appropriate to socialise at the Gold Coast 600 than get to work on behalf of the thousands of south-east Queensland commuters who don’t know if they’ll be getting to work or school on time.”
Ms Frecklington said responsibility for the Queensland Rail crisis lay solely at the feet of the Palaszczuk Labor Government, which had been in power for more than 18 months and had been made aware of issues earlier.
“During this morning’s train-wreck interview, the bungling Minister admitted he had been warned about issues within the system for some time – but he thought they were only short-term,” Ms Frecklington said.
“When asked what had been done to alert commuters to Friday’s cancellation of over 100 train services across south-east Queensland, the Minister simply said warnings had been published on the TransLink website.
“Under the LNP, Queensland had the most reliable train system in the country with a 96 per cent on-time rate – the best record in Queensland Rail history.
“When the LNP opened the Springfield line – a whole new rail service – we didn’t see these kinds of problems. Just like the disastrous health payroll system, Labor simply can’t be trusted to deliver services for Queenslanders.
“It’s no surprise the last time Queensland’s transport system was this bad was when Annastacia Palaszczuk was the Transport Minister and the on-time running rate was as low was 86 per cent.”
