Labor budget trick spins Natural Resource Management funding

  • Labor has been caught out lying about making a five-year, $80 million funding commitment to the Queensland Natural Resource Management Investment Program
  • The LNP invested a record $80 million over five years into the Queensland Natural Resource Management Investment Program
  • Labor’s rhetoric about being concerned about the environment is hollow

The Palaszczuk Government has been caught out lying about making a five-year, $80 million funding commitment to the core Queensland Natural Resource Management Investment (QNRMI) program.

Today’s media releases from Labor’s Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham and the departmental website claim Labor has committed $80 million over five years to the QNRMI program.

LNP Shadow Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps said the website* claimed QNRMI program funding from the 2013-14 and 2014-15 budgets – budgets handed down by the former LNP Government.

Mr Cripps said in June, he had pointed out dramatic cuts to core Department of Natural Resources and Mines programs in Labor’s 2017-18 budget and today’s regional QNRMI program announcements reflected those cuts.

“After two years of trading on the strong, long-term commitment by the former LNP Government in the 2013-14 budget, the Palaszczuk Government has failed to strongly reinvest,” Mr Cripps said.

“This is a bitterly disappointing result for the core QNRMI program, which is the backbone of Queensland’s grass-roots, natural resource management effort across the state.

“For the first time in the 2013-14 budget, the former LNP Government invested a record $80 million over five years into the QNRMI program.”

“Since then it has achieved very strong natural resource management outcomes, but now when it comes to renewing that investment, we see Labor’s commitment slashed to just $42.3 million over only four years.”

Mr Cripps said it meant natural resource management funding had effectively been slashed by one-third.

“What makes this cut all the more extraordinary is the all rhetoric we hear from the Palaszczuk Government about how concerned it is about the environment – clearly that rhetoric is hollow,” Mr Cripps said.

“Labor’s budget trick of claiming QNRMI program funding previously committed by the LNP was not new, but the outcome was bad for the environment and regional Queensland.”

*https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/agriculture/sustainable-farming/nrm-investment-program

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