30 June 2016
People living in the bush could be hit with six sneaky new taxes from the Palaszczuk Government to pay for a public transport system for the city, Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett warned.
Mr Bennett said Annastacia Palaszczuk had deliberately concealed plans for new taxes on Queenslanders when she released an edited version of the Cross River Rail project’s business case on Monday – a plan that could see the people of Bundaberg and Burnett paying for a transport system they may never even use.
“It’s been revealed that Labor is considering a congestion tax, rego hike, land taxes, a public transport infrastructure tax, higher public transport fares and higher rates to fund its Cross River Rail in Brisbane,” Mr Bennett said.
“Labor’s gone into full damage control, but who can believe them ruling out a rego hike or any other of their proposed taxes when two days ago they were clearly in the plan sent to the Federal Government – the plan Annastacia Palaszczuk still hasn’t released.
“Labor’s been caught out hiding how it really plans to cover the costs of this $5.4 billion project – by slugging families in the Bundaberg and Burnett region for a public transport system they probably won’t ever use.
“Why did Annastacia Palaszczuk hide her plan for Queensland motorists to fund this project to the tune of $1.2 billion when it released its heavily edited version of the business case two ago?”
Mr Bennett said the Labor government needed to come clean with Queenslanders.
“Labor’s plan to hit every Queenslander in the hip pocket every time they pay their car registration has been exposed and now this Palaszczuk Labor Government needs to come clean, publicly release the full business case for this major SEQ project, to assure regional Queenslanders they won’t face higher rego costs.”
ENDS.