Qld: Our Assets are Not4Sale

Community Cabinet rally to tell LNP …Our Assets are Not4Sale 

Not4Sale campaign supporters will once again be out in force when the who’s who of LNP State politics rolls through the Sunshine Coast for the first Community Cabinet since the Nicholls Asset Sales Budget.  Rally attendees will express their opposition to the government’s intention to sell $33 Billion worth of public assets including 49% of electricity supplier Energex.

ETU State Organiser Stuart Traill and Not4Sale Community Organiser Lara Watson said the rally which will be held on Sunday 22nd June at Maroochydore State High School,  from 12 midday, will show the government that even in their heartland people hate asset sales and  there is nowhere to hide.

“The LNP have spent the good part of two years denying their intentions to sell public assets, and then following a $6Million PR campaign they come out and say, you know those assets that we as Queenslanders all own – we’re going to pinch them and sell them off to our  mates” Mr Traill said.

“While the government have been dishonest and sneaky about their position, trying to hoodwink the Queensland people into accepting a flawed privatisation policy that will fail, we have been forthright and consistent with our opposition to asset sales, not to be bloody  minded, but because on all available evidence privatisation as a policy fails. Privatisation fails consumers, it fails communities, it certainly
fails the workers and it fails economically, it has failed throughout the world and interstate and it will fail here,” he said.

Mr Traill said the government knows privatisation of essential services affects the most vulnerable but the LNP just don’t care.

“The poor, the elderly and those living in regional and remote communities are always hit the hardest, as they were in South Australia and Victoria, and they have no one in this current mean spirited - government advocating for them”

“We are in the grip of the new breed of free market Liberals in Queensland now, the old school Nats who used to profess to look after the bush and regions like the Sunshine Coast are content to sit on their massive pay rises, getting fat on the public purse while people struggle, they are a disgrace. The fact this government even contemplated taking concessions off senior Queenslanders at the same time
as they increased power prices by 13.6%, shows how low they have gone”

“We expect a big turn out on Sunday because Queenslanders are filthy about this Government, they feel they have No Choices and they aren’t being listened to. People feel betrayed and it’s not just privatisation, it’s also the government’s job cuts ideology which has seen 1717 electricity workers and more than 15 000 state sector workers sacked since March 2012, people have had enough of the spin and the double standards. Queenslanders are concerned about the trashing of the law and the arrogant disregard for our elderly; I don’t reckon there is one segment of the Queensland community that hasn’t been harmed by this government’s policies”

“We have had local councilors, farmers and small business owners contacting us with concerns about what will happen to their communities, families and businesses if the LNP’s relentless job cuts and privatisation agenda’s continue.”

“We ask members of Sunshine Coast communities to join with us and show the LNP State government that we do not support its proprivatisation, anti-community policies and it’s time for them to listen and act in the best interests of  Queenslanders”