“It is money we can ill afford especially considering it is those same funds that will be required later on to sustain the provision of basic services and alleviate the requirements of those who will lose their job in this financial crisis,” he said.

 

“Boeing, Anglo Coal, Pacific Brands, Bosch and Lend Lease have already announced job losses. Rather than put the wealth of the Australian people as represented in our previous surplus to work in the construction of infrastructure to take on board some of those who are out of work, Mr Rudd and Mr Swan in their manic spending packages have decided to return to the casino in some vain attempt of quadruple or nothing to get the money back.

 

“They say a fool and their money are soon parted friends. The unfortunate thing is it wasn’t Mr Swan’s money but that of the Australian taxpayers. How could he possibly think that ceiling insulation, boom gates and school halls could even vaguely compare to such projects as the inland rail between Gladstone and Melbourne which would create a new corridor of commercial opportunity and alleviate port bottlenecks or the completion of the missing link between Moranbah and the Abbot Point coal loading facility, a mere 69 kilometres of rail, which the Queensland Labor Government in their infinite wisdom have mothballed, or the obvious question continuously asked by all Australia, why are we not moving the water from the Gulf into the Murray-Darling?

 

“All the Labor Party have suggested for us is an Emissions Trading Scheme which is a government policy that far from alleviating the financial crisis will exacerbate it. There will be people who will have the locks changed on their house after it is repossessed by reason of them losing their job because of that government economic policy. When will the Labor Government decide to stand up for working families and can this ridiculous idea whose impending shadow is already affecting confidence, let alone the effect of its implementation?”