The Liberal National Party will call for registrations of interest for up to two regional casino licences within the first 100 days of winning office to attract jobs and investment into regional communities neglected under Annastacia Palaszczuk.
LNP Deputy Leader and Shadow State Development Minister Deb Frecklington said the Regional Integrated Resort Development started under the LNP had hopelessly stalled under Annastacia Palaszczuk.
She said the registration of interest process would be the first step to a potential expressions of interest stage and request for detailed proposal stage with construction starting within 18 months of contractual close.
“Queensland is stagnating, the community is crying out for leadership and we have a government stuck in neutral,” Ms Frecklington said.
“Developers are extremely interested in building a world-class Integrated Resort Development (IRD) in Regional Queensland but Labor won’t give them a chance.
“Queensland is missing out on billions of dollars of investment and thousands of job opportunities because Labor can’t make a decision.”
Ms Frecklington, announcing the policy in Yeppoon today, said one of the two casino licences would be reserved exclusively for Central and North Queensland if the LNP was successful at the next state election.
“Let’s not forget the $8.5 billion Aquis project fell over under Labor’s watch despite all the hand-shaking for the cameras from Curtis Pitt,” she said.
“Unfortunately for North Queensland, and especially Cairns, Labor hasn’t bothered to do anything about a casino licence since it lost the Aquis deal despite saying on March 16, 2016 it would.
“Labor’s criteria has stifled the development of an IRD in Regional Queensland because of the requirement the regional casino be located within 70km of a major population centre with a catchment of at least 150,000 people.
“A future LNP government would drop Labor’s unfair criteria surrounding minimum population and proximity to an international airport.”
Ms Frecklington said Labor’s Mulgrave MP and so-called Treasurer Curtis Pitt had completely failed Far North Queenslanders when it came to this once-in-a-generation job creating project.
“Curtis Pitt pledged in January, 2015 that he would do everything in his power to ensure the project got over the line and delivering the project would be a priority for him,” she said.
“He also stated a few months later in April, 2015 he would “fast-track” and “speed-up” the necessary approvals required to get the $8.5bn mega resort over the line.
“But we now know that Aquis walked away from the multi-billion dollar project under Curtis Pitt’s watch.
“A multi-billion project of that size and scale would have gone along way at reducing the shocking unemployment and youth unemployment rates in Cairns that have skyrocketed under Annastacia Palaszczuk and Curtis Pitt’s watch.”
Ms Frecklington said the LNP’s criteria for a regional IRD proposal is it must enhance the state’s tourism industry and make Queensland attractive to overseas investors.
“The LNP’s Integrated Resorts Developments policy for Regional Queensland will build a better tourism industry and create thousands of construction and tourism jobs,” she said.
“It will provide significant economic benefits to Regional Queensland including jobs and opportunities for local businesses during construction and operations.
“Labor’s softly, softly approach is failing Queenslanders - doing nothing is not working.
“Instead of leading the way in job creation and job security, we are falling behind the other states under Annastacia Palaszczuk’s watch.”
