Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk admitted in State Parliament today that her government was warned over 18 months ago that emergency phones on some of Queensland’s busiest highways would be shut down and did nothing.
LNP Shadow Transport Minister Andrew Powell said Labor Main Roads Minister was clearly so busy using and deleting his private email account, he’d put Queenslanders lives at risk.
“Mark Bailey has known for over 18 months that emergency phones along the busiest stretches of the Bruce Highway and Pacific Motorway would be decommissioned last December and yet no action was taken to protect driver safety,” Mr Powell said.
“I am advised that Telstra first notified the department in mid-2015 of their intention to decommission the network.” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Hansard, 23 March, 2017
“Imagine the utter desperation and fear felt by a motorist who clambered their way to one of these phones to call an ambulance, only to be met by deafening silence from a useless hand piece.
“It’s just not good enough and Queenslanders deserve so much better from this incompetent government.
“And now only because of media coverage and LNP questions in Parliament does Labor say they’re going to fix these lifelines.
“In the meantime Queenslanders are expected to rely on dodgy or zero mobile phone reception to make a desperate call for help after a road accident or other tragedy.
“The Premier needs to tell her minister to get off his yahoo account and get on with the job of making Queensland roads safe again.”
