As disappointing as the Coalition’s election loss is for me, I did not get into politics to win elections. I got into politics to make a difference, to make our country better.
While the Coalition did not win government around the country, together with Michelle Landry, Colin Boyce and other LNP representatives in Central Queensland, I keep working hard for Central Queensland. Over the past three years, we have made a difference for Central Queensland even from Opposition.
Within months of the Labor Government being elected three years ago, Anthony Albanese cut funding to the Rockhampton Ring Road. Within days Michelle, Colin, I and some angry locals had organised a rally and a convoy to Canberra to fight for road funding. Within months Labor backed down and restored the funding.
Amazingly, in their next budget, Labor cut funding to Beef Roads in Central Queensland. Once again we launched a campaign to save funding for some of the worst roads in Australia. And again, within months the funding was restored and many roads now have bitumen for the first time, making for safer and quicker journeys for our farmers and miners.
Over the past few months, the LNP team have pushed to bring the Olympic and Paralympic rowing and canoeing to Rockhampton. Strongly supported by the election of our state MPs, Donna Kirkland, Nigel Hutton and Glen Kelly, we lobbied the new state government and secured this game-changing event for CQ. The Olympics event will not just deliver major sporting upgrades, it will also redevelop the disused and decaying railyards with 1100 beds for the Games, which will be converted to housing afterwards.
So over the next three years, we will continue to do the same as we have been doing for the last decade. That is, tirelessly fighting for Central Queensland to bring the investments (like Rookwood weir) and the better services (like the Rocky Hospital carpark and the Gracemere High School) that will make life better for everyone.
There will be time to reflect on why the Coalition could not win seats elsewhere in Australia. I will approach this debate with the principle that we should not be making decisions to save the party we should be making decisions to save the country.
Too often over the past decade, major decisions for our nation have been outsourced to pollsters. That is how we ended up with a costly and ineffective net zero policy, a nuclear policy that aimed to reduce emissions not reduce power bills and an effective ban on the building of new coal-fired power stations despite being the biggest coal exporter in the world.
Ever since COVID our nation has been in decline. Living standards have fallen by record amounts, our debt has ballooned, and families are struggling to pay their mortgages after 13 interest rate rises. Australia has more energy and land resources per person than anywhere in the world. We export coal and gas to the world and the countries that buy it from us have cheaper power prices than we do.
Exporting your natural resources to other nations but not using them yourself is like a reverse tariff that penalises Australian manufacturing jobs and helps our overseas competitors.
If action is not taken soon we may be the first generation in Australian history to pass on a poorer nation to the next generation.
That is an outcome that I am desperate to fight against. We need to rediscover our fighting spirit as a political force. We should decide what we think is right for the country and then fight like hell for it. I would much prefer to lose an election after fighting on our feet than lose by default by surrendering before a vote is even cast.
We have had both political and economic success in Central Queensland by taking a fight-like-hell approach. Perhaps it’s a model that the Coalition should use around the country.
