Hon. Mick de Brenni
MEMBER FOR SPRINGWOOD
Record of Proceedings, 27 June 2025

I rise to speak to the appropriation and revenue bills before the House. I start my contribution by commending the Leader of the Opposition on his reply. Labor has outlined solid additional steps forward that we would be willing to take—a strong alternative vision for Queenslanders.

Labor asserts that a budget truly on the side of Queenslanders is one that makes sure pensioners, families on tight incomes and people with a disability do not have to choose between paying for groceries and paying the rent. Labor asserts that a budget that puts people first would have bold, not weak, measures aimed at lifting housing construction and supply. We believe in real action to create great trade jobs—great jobs in the construction industry—and the workforce Australia needs to truly lift the supply of homes. That is Labor’s vision: kindness for Queenslanders who are struggling, more affordable places to call home and quality jobs that build this nation.

Budgets are a reflection of priorities, of values and of vision. This first LNP budget has made their priorities crystal clear. They have chosen to prioritise making life harder for Queenslanders—not easier. Harder for teachers, ambos, nurses, firies, police and administrative workers. As the media reported, the budget is missing over $1 billion to properly pay the public sector workforce. The LNP budget is a plan to short-change the Queensland front line.

Let’s look in my own backyard. I have listened to locals on their doorsteps and in the aisles of our supermarkets. I sit with them in the clubhouses and in the school halls. I do not mind sinking a few schooners down at the pub with the veterans and the tradies. What I hear time and time again is that people just want a government that is on their side. Queenslanders just want a government that is prepared to put them first because people are actually struggling with filling up the fuel tank. They are actually struggling to fill up the grocery cart. They do want strong local schools and hospitals for their family. They are desperate for safer roads and better infrastructure. What we have seen from this budget is a government that is already turning its back on those Queenslanders.

All this week, the LNP’s spokesperson on the budget, the member for Kawana, has carried on like a teenage brat about the colour of their budget brochures. Then there are the antics of the LNP Premier himself who purports to lead this state. Both of them sat in here making childish tooting noises to emulate the train lines that they will not build, as if this parliamentary chamber was some sort of playground or a sandpit.

Labor exposed their dishonesty about rebadging Queensland’s colours from maroon to blue. When this Premier walks into this House with his blue budget papers, it means something. Published research proves the strong relationship between ideology and the use of colour. In essence, the colour blue in an ultraconservative context serves as a visual shorthand for a particular set of values, affiliations and political stances. We have seen a government spokesperson—neither the Premier or the Treasurer—take the lead on that direction while Queenslanders ask: where on earth are they taking this state? This budget answers that question. Queenslanders want to ensure we are always building, moving forward in an ever-changing world, yet the only thing that this budget changes is our state’s colour. Last I checked, we were maroon. If you ask Queenslanders, I think that they agree.

In a budget there are always winners and losers. In our local community there are some winners. So many more, though, were left out in the cold. Take the welfare of ordinary households. The LNP budget tells us that helping households is not this government’s priority. Energy bills will rise 614 per cent without the rebate. So much for a Premier who promised Queenslanders that electricity would be cheaper. Premier Crisafulli made a promise to Queenslanders, then he broke it, and he broke it deliberately—not because of external factors but because he chose to. The other household budgets were all Labor initiatives.

We live in a neighbourhood where most of us have to leave our community to go to work or to study, so when it comes to roads, disappointing is an understatement. The Daisy Hill to Logan Motorway M1 upgrade is one of the busiest stretches of road, not just in Queensland but in the entire nation. There is no timeline for getting it done. In fact, strewn apart are road projects that are now bereft of a specific timeline or dollar figure. For the LNP, through this budget, to let road projects blow out by hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars makes it clear that they do not care about Queenslanders’ money. When it comes to timelines, there is not a single completion date for any project.

There is also Valley Way in Mount Cotton. Some 711 locals signed a petition to make sure that project was in this budget, but here is the LNP catch: construction is not budgeted to start for years and years. The LNP may have decided that Mount Cotton locals will have to potentially wait another five years to see any changes on Mount Cotton Road. By then, congestion is likely to be worse and the allocated funding is likely to not be enough. Then there is the millions spent in planning for Beenleigh Redland Bay Road. Now the project to double Beenleigh-Redland Bay Road appears to have been shut down by this budget. This road is seeing more and more traffic every day with the growth of the southern Redlands. The LNP government said in its election manifesto—

We will get our busy roads flowing again by upgrading critical traffic chokepoints.

That is just more weak rubbish from this government, and this budget proves it.

This one speaks volumes about a government that just does not listen. After all of the planning, public consultation and feedback on an incredibly dangerous intersection between Mount Cotton Road and Double Jump Road—an intersection that has seen so much pain and loss—the LNP budget appears to have dumped the Double Jump Road intersection upgrade. It has been cut out of their transport plan. I fear there will be more crashes and more fatalities. Over 700 locals signed a petition calling for the upgrades. This government chose to ignore them. The LNP government will have blood on its hands as a result. They say they want people to get home sooner and safer, yet inevitably someone will not make it home because of the decisions that the LNP government made in this budget and it will be up to this LNP government to explain.

This budget fails to commit resourcing to our local police beats in Rochedale South and Springwood, despite a petition being tabled in this parliament this week with 2,000 signatures from the communities of Rochedale South, Springwood and Daisy Hill. How on earth can police use the extra weapons and the extra laws that this place has furnished them with if the police themselves do not exist? How can the government expect to make Queensland safer when they do not commit to resourcing our local police beats?

I can imagine the anger of families at Kimberley Park State School. Mums and dads by their hundreds called for a new outside school hours care building. They petitioned for it right across their community and Labor committed to it and the then LNP shadow minister agreed. He slinked down there one afternoon just days before the state election. He told the P&C it was clear that new facilities were needed. He said that they would work with the school community. Almost 1,500 local families signed the petition and this LNP government and this budget have ignored them. The now education minister has said no. The member for Surfers Paradise has hung the Leader of the House out to dry.

In summary, this budget is untrustworthy, it is dodgy and it is wrong. That sums up the LNP budget.