Monday 20 September 2010

Asset sales: Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

With the $5 billion Queensland Rail float now on the tracks, the Liberal National Party says this "fire sale" is going ahead at the wrong time for the wrong reason and the wrong price.

State Opposition and LNP Leader John-Paul Langbroek said the ongoing instability in the finance markets made it the wrong time to float QR National.

“We remain completely opposed to the sale of these assets under any circumstances, because the people of Queensland were deceived by the Bligh Labor Government at the last State Election and they don’t want these assets sold,” Langbroek said. “I am concerned by the timing of the launch of the QR National Share Offer – this will not deliver the best possible return to the people of Queensland for their assets."

“It is the wrong assets, at the wrong time, for the wrong reason and at the wrong price," Langbroek says.

He says that it was important for Queenslanders to remember that the float of a public asset was not guaranteed to be a good investment.

“Queenslanders should take a very good look and seek advice before signing up," Langbroek says. “Shares are not always a good investment, as many people who were burnt by the Telstra and BrisConnections share deals can attest."

“Buying shares does not guarantee a return and I would hate to see Queenslanders lose money they can’t afford because they believed the Government’s advertising about the sale.

“If this long term Labor Government had the best interests of the State in mind, they would sink the float of QR National and stop the asset sales.”

Meanwhile, in other money news, the State Labor Government will pay Telstra $77 million to move from a South Brisbane site to make way for a planned children's hospital, currently occupied by Telstra's South Brisbane exchange.

It includes a $28 million loan, for the replacement of cabling to residences, that the government promises will be repaid to the state in full.

"It's a prime site. Not only are we looking as a government to acquire the site but we are happy to replace the functionality of the network," Treasurer Andrew Fraser says. "I don't think the people of South Brisbane would take too kindly to us if we pulled the plug out from their internet connections."

I expect he'll learn that the plug will soon be pulled on the State Labor Government.

1 comment:

Local worker said...

Bligh, Fraser and the rest of the Labor turncoat traitors have to go. It is time to reclaim the ALP for the working class.