Labor has used a pitch to the party faithful in Queensland to unveil its first tranche of spending from a federal disaster recovery fund and a state push to build more publicly owned wind and solar farms.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Saturday announced $500m in funding to create 2.3 gigawatts of renewable energy sources to be developed by government-run energy company CleanCo.
She told the Queensland Labor conference in Mackay the state would maintain majority ownership of its power assets during the energy transition and the measure would be enshrined in laws brought to parliament by the end of the year.
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers announced $20 million from the Commonwealth disaster fund would go towards extending the Queensland household resilience program for another three years.
“This will allow up to 1100 more homes in regional Queensland to be made more disaster-resilient, helping to limit the damage when storm season rolls around,” he said.
‘Job’s only just getting started’
Dr Chalmers used his keynote speech to spruik his government’s first-year achievements, saying it was making progress on all fronts and pointing to recent wage rises for workers on low and award wages.
“We are proud of the progress we’ve made together in our first year, but we know the job’s only just getting started,” he said.
“It will take more than a couple of budgets and more than one term to clean up the mess our opponents left behind.”
Dr Chalmers lashed the former coalition government’s record in front of the partisan crowd, while dismissing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton as the “leader of the leftovers”.
“Listening to Peter Dutton is like tuning in to an RSL cover-band of the Abbott-Morrison years,” he said.
Ms Palaszczuk said Labor was about “building a better, brighter future”, highlighting her government’s support for the Indigenous voice in contrast to the positions of state and federal oppositions.
“(The voice referendum is) a once-in-a-generation opportunity to try and put right centuries of wrong,” she said.
She also praised Dr Chalmers, whose federal seat is in Brisbane’s south, for working with the state rather than against it.
“Isn’t it great to have a Queenslander as our federal treasurer,” she said.
-AAP
